Saddam Hussein told the judge at his trial Monday that "I am not afraid of execution" during a chaotic court session in which the first witness took the stand and testified that the former president's agents carried out random arrests, torture and killings. The outburst was one of several by Saddam or his co-defendants at the trial that also saw a brief walkout by his defense lawyers. At one point, Saddam appeared to threaten the judge, saying: "When the revolution of the heroic Iraq arrives, you will be held accountable."
He issued threats? Old habits die hard, I guess. Excuse me, however, for noting this; but wasn't the time for Saddam to display defiance and bravery the day American troops pulled the grubby ex-dictator from his spider hole with loaded weapons unused? It is pretty easy to shout down his common accusers when Saddam knows he will not be fed into a plastic shredder for his defiance.
It is good that Saddam is not afraid of execution. Now is the time for him to sit, down, shut up, and get used to the idea that he is now being held accountable for his crimes and faces a future of either a bullet or a noose.
You see, Saddam seems to fail to understand that the revolution--one of democracy and freedom--did come to Iraq. And the sight of common victims of a governments reign of terror and death testifying against a dictator, and then seeing that dictator buried six feet under in partial payment according to legal proceedings, will shake the neighborhood, I dare say.
