Right outcome, wrong process
Human Right Watch have published their report into Saddam Hussein's trial, finding it "flawed and unsound". The trial was, of course, deeply flawed and unsound. Anyone who denies that lives in an alternate reality.
But the trial did reveal the horror of Saddam's regime. It revealed beyond any reasonable doubt that his rule was a reign of terror that we were right to bring to an end.
The unsoundness of the trial is, therefore, doubly regrettable, because it undermines the legitimacy of the sentence. Hopefully, he will live to see through the next trial - ideally, trial after trial after trial, for all his crimes - and fewer people will be able to deny the truth of his evil.
But the trial did reveal the horror of Saddam's regime. It revealed beyond any reasonable doubt that his rule was a reign of terror that we were right to bring to an end.
The unsoundness of the trial is, therefore, doubly regrettable, because it undermines the legitimacy of the sentence. Hopefully, he will live to see through the next trial - ideally, trial after trial after trial, for all his crimes - and fewer people will be able to deny the truth of his evil.
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