Hussein vs. Bush

2 July 2004
By Jim Weller

It was predictable and darkly, regrettably, humorous to witness the spectacle of Sadaam Hussein publicly arraigned, before an unidentified judge, in an undisclosed location, still under U.S. military custody, angrily and defiantly insisting, “I am the President of Iraq!” He stands accused, by all accounts rightly, of many horrible crimes against humanity, yet in his view, he is irreproachable. He is absolutely certain of his authority and his justification – despite, doubtlessly, having dictated policies which resulted in the reasonless deaths of many thousands of people, and grievous suffering for many more; and despite never having been freely and fairly elected by the people of his country – which brings me to my point: The very same is true of George W. Bush. There’s the greater irony.

It seems an ageless truth of humanity that, when absolute power corrupts absolutely, those depraved by power believe themselves to be transcendent of all bounds of conscience and ordinary morality. Thus, such hopelessly damned souls exult in the sort of double-speak by which miserable lies are proclaimed truth, as we’ve heard both Bush and Hussein so proudly do.

Sadaam is deeply, irredeemably in the wrong, and so is Bush, but not on the same account. Hussein neither threatened nor attacked the U.S.A., nor did he aid or abet the terrorists who did. Bush lied and misprised the United States and the world about this. He criminally attacked the Iraqi people and destroyed their nation, upon utterly false premises, wasting untold thousands of lives in the process.

George W. Bush’s ideological forebears, George Bush the elder and Ronald Reagan before him, behaved in the same fashion, with the same motivations, continuing the trend of a century of U.S. military adventurism and political and economic imperialism. Thus, the United States has made of itself an island fortress in a sea of enmity. The crimes of the United States, most egregiously but not solely committed by the present Bush regime, overshadow enormously Sadaam Hussein’s crimes, in which the U.S. government was deeply complicit as well. It is right that Hussein should be tried by his own people, though it is not at all clear that is what’s happening. Just the same, Bush should be tried by his people after he is politically deposed – which I trust, hope, and pray will be the result of this November’s election.

The end of Bush’s tyranny may have now begun, but the social and political revolution the people of the United States must make will have only just begun with overthrowing Bush. Indicting, trying, and condemning him and all his co-conspirators will be the necessary next step. A structural transformation of the polity of the United States toward a more democratic, more just society, together with thoroughgoing demilitarization, and an economic transformation in the interest of social equity and sustainability, will have to follow.