I wonder if all of the ProWarTypes who were so romantically in love with Mel Gibson in the movie, will have what it takes to stand up and demand that we finally get a top down review of the american position on torture, and prisoner abuse, maybe even work out what moral standards we really want to bring into the court room when discussing the "charges" being leveled against Saddam Hussein. Do we really want to use the american standard that says that only the enlisted personnel in the Iraqi Armed Forces should be held accountable for being 'bad apples'? Do we really want to use the american standards that it is ok, as long as the nation is @war - americans do understand that all of those bad things Saddam did during the Iraq-Iran War, were, well, done during a War. Or do we want to take the american standard that during a counter-insurgency, well, gosh, anything goes, because it is neither a war against a uniformed military, nor is it really a peace time standard. A problematic point, given that the massacre of Iraqi's occured while Saddam was dealing with a terrorist insurgency by dead ender shi'ite extremists who didn't understand the need for a new more democratic and secular society based upon the free market principles.
I know that there are so few in america who have served in the military, or put their lives at risk to actualize their political rhetoric - but maybe it is time for americans to try it. Why gosh, who knows, if nothing else it may help establish some level of pausible deniability when the military tribunals arrive after 'the war' to work out what should have been done.
