LEGAL VIEWS AND NEWS
Saddam Hussein has been captured, so now the president will get a boost in his ratings, have some good campaign fodder and can return to the job he agreed to do in the first place. Take care of the United States of America, not spend four years campaigning, building his war chest and sacrificing our men and women so that he can look good on election day.
At first blush it appears that the president is planning to have the now-deposed tyrant tried and convicted in Iraq by the Iraqi people for some version of crimes against humanity, abusing his people, destroying their economy and a few murders. This is to prove what an evenhanded and rational man the president is and how fair we as a country are.
Hussein has been shown to be the coward that everyone thought he was. His capture was welcome news, for hopefully it will speed the end of the occupation of Iraq and the formation of a new government, one that can provide basic human rights to its people.
The weapons of mass destruction have not been found yet. Remember them? They were the original reason that this war was started. Perhaps now the defiant and sarcastic Saddam Hussein will give up the truth, but he maintains that there were no WMDs and that his country had no links to Al Qaeda. Time will tell.
All of this occurs on the eve of the Afghan national congress. In Afghanistan the people are attempting to fashion a new constitution and a new government after we destroyed their old one. There, each tribe has elected representatives, the men have theirs, and the women theirs. It shall be interesting to see in the years to come how these two countries develop.
Evidently Mr. Bush is a big believer in the theory that a leader is supposed to serve the people. He appears to believe that the lowliest Iraqi is entitled to a free and democratic society. One in which their voice is heard and respected. The same goes for the Afghanis.
Mr. Bush has put forth a plan for other countries; his efforts to protect the lowli-est and weakest of other countries is laudable. His goals are noble. It is clear that he is attempting to bring a sense of stability to a region that has politics that change as fast as the sands of the desert.
The lives that have been lost in this effort will hopefully not have been in vain. Many Americans have made the supreme sacrifice for Mr. Bush. He has asked much of our country.
How ironic then that he has so little time for his own people.
Aleader is supposed to work for the will of the people. He or she should be a visionary for the way that a society should be structured to benefit that society the most. This is a great responsibility and as a leader, it falls on the shoulders of those in charge to enact laws that are fair to all and designed to protect those whose voices cannot be heard easily. As a leader, it is his job to fight for the downtrodden, to provide them cover in the battle to be heard.
Unfortunately, Mr. Bush would prefer to do this on the international level rather than on the domestic level. He would rather protect the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, provide jobs for the Chinese and make sure that there is a steady supply of raw materials for the multi-nationals that contributed to his $100 million war chest than protect the rights of the citizens of the United States.
As president, Mr. Bush is the leader of his party, much the way that Mr. Hussein was leader of his party. Of the party that Mr. Bush leads, much can be said. It is the party of Lincoln, a man whose name has become synonymous with greatness and vision. It is the party that used to stand for small government, that wanted the government out of peoples lives.
Of his leadership, he has shown great conviction in his actions. Conviction that will either make him a great man in the eyes of history, one who saw a Middle East with stable governments that are at a minimum acceptable to the United States’ diplomatic mission, or at best sympathetic to our needs and goals. Alternatively, he may be shown to be a reckless and shallow thinker whose actions did nothing to produce long-term benefits to either the world or the United States.
As president, he is sworn to protect and defend the Constitution to the best of his ability. His latest win, with the capture of the butcher of Baghdad, will give a needed boost to his sails, and perhaps now he can focus on the country he leads and our problems at home.
We have a society that is in desperate need of a health care plan, some new manufacturing jobs, perhaps a review of our civil rights and government infringing, and a good environmental policy. Someone needs to take him out to the people and show him the way we, the proletariat, live. How our world really works. Enough of his caretaking the rest of the world.
Now can we take care of ourselves?
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 17, 2003. Read the original PDF.