The same will be case in 2007. The U.S. Congress vs "Wartime President" Bush - especially a Constitutional showdown between Bush's claim of almost unlimited powers for the Commander-in-Chief during wartime based on the Unitary Executive theory - will be a big news story in 2007. Bush claims powers for a "Wartime President" that far exceed those of Congress or the Judiciary. However, Congressional investigations into the war may start small with issues such as the awarding of no bid contracts and contractor misuse of funds in Iraq.
Nevertheless, THE news story of 2007 will be continuing violence in Iraq inflicted on the Iraqi people and on American troops. The fiscal cost of the war will be part of that story, but THE story will be the violence associated with that war as Bush escalates it shortly after the New Year begins.
We can hope against hope that THE story of 2007 will be the end of the U.S. war in Iraq. I hope and pray THAT is the news story of 2007.
For many Saddam's death did not bring closure nor will it have the kind of negative psychological effect on the insurgency or the positive psychological effect of uniting Iraqis that was previously expected. The insurgency is too strong and the civil war in Iraq is too full blown for Saddam's death to have any positive effect.
Who cares, says a mom
quote:Saddam's defiance on the gallows will serve to make him a hero in Iraqi Sunnis' eyes and elsewhere in the Muslim world which is majority Sunni. Saddam's trial and execution will not bolster international human rights law. Saddam's trial and execution were counter-productive to the cause of peace, justice, reconciliation, and understanding in Iraq and in the Arab and Muslim world.
BY IVAN PEREIRA and TINA MOORE
New York DAILY NEWS WRITERS
31 December 2006
President Bush called Saddam Hussein's execution a "milestone," but for Manhattan resident Sophy Haynes, it was merely another grim reminder of her soldier son's death.
"It's a nonevent to me," said Haynes, 78, whose son, Schuyler, 40, was killed last month in Baquba, Iraq, by a roadside bomb. "It has no meaning. We went into a place that I don't believe we had any business going into."
Another grieving mother, Fizoon Ashraf, of Brooklyn, didn't even hear about the execution until yesterday afternoon.
Her son, Rasheed Sahib, 22, died in Iraq in 2003.
"I don't even care what's going on," said Ashraf. "I lost my son, and that's all I can concentrate on."
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On the Gallows, Curses for U.S. and ‘Traitors’
quote:Hussein’s Case Won’t Bolster International Human Rights Law, Experts Fear
December 31, 2006
By MARC SANTORA
The New York Times
BAGHDAD, Dec. 30 — Saddam Hussein never bowed his head, until his neck snapped.
His last words were equally defiant.
“Down with the traitors, the Americans, the spies and the Persians.”
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quote:
December 31, 2006
By MARLISE SIMONS
The New York Times
PARIS, Dec. 30 — Saddam Hussein is one of the few modern leaders to have been tried and executed for his crimes and other abuses of power. Most dictators of the past century have died of natural causes at home or in comfortable exile — or at the hands of assassins.
But with trials of former leaders becoming more common in the past decade, there are other distinguishing features in the Hussein case: he was the first former leader to be tried by a domestic court for crimes against humanity — a crime enshrined in international law — and put to death for it.
His dawn hanging on Saturday further stands out because the new international legal institutions, like the International Criminal Court and the temporary tribunals that are trying war crimes cases in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, do not impose the death penalty.
Despite this application of international law against Mr. Hussein, experts say, his conviction for crimes against humanity has not significantly reinforced efforts to apply concepts of international human rights law around the world. They argue that the trial has been too widely perceived, both in Iraq and abroad, as a chaotic and politicized process with many serious flaws carried out by inexperienced judges. “It's highly doubtful that courts elsewhere might cite this judgment, given its poor credibility,” said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch’s international justice program.
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