Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

An Associated Press article includes suggestions that the United States has been pressuring Iraq to speed up Hussein's execution over a weekend already busy with a state funeral and national holiday.

"It's none of the Americans' business to decide when," a senior Justice Ministry official said, dismissing a suggestion from a senior U.S. official that Saddam could hang as early as Saturday. (AP)

Simultaneously, we read at the New York Times that Bush is pushing foward on plans to increase U.S. forces in Iraq. The plans, notes the Times, are very "unclear." The concurrent events may be an indication that the plans are a ploy to force Iraqi leaders into compliance with U.S. demands; or, they may be only coincidental. In any case, sending additional troops does little for the Bush legacy or Republican party ambitions in the face of widespread public opposition. Some other agenda seems to be in play.

Thus, it is interesting to read at Wonkette and the Washington Post that President Bush is unwilling to cut short his Texas vacation in order to honor the arrival of Gerald Ford's body at the Capitol rotunda on Saturday - a very un-presidential response to the death of a former president admired by many for his integrity. On the other hand, integrity and George W. Bush are often at odds with each other, and it's hardly the first time our President remained unavailable just when the nation expected him to provide leadership.

Possibly, Bush is in a pique over Ford's criticism of his rush to invade Iraq. But, viewed together, the AP and WaPo stories raise another possibility, that Bush plans to remain in Texas on Saturday in order to privately monitor and celebrate Hussein's execution.

"We will video everything," said Mouffak al Rubaie. "All documentation will be videoed. Taking him from cell to the execution is going to be videoed, and the actual execution will be documented and videoed."  (In The News)

The accumulating evidence gives increasing support to a theory that the invasion of Iraq was foremost a vendetta against Hussein, one-time puppet and later enemy of George H.W. Bush. Just as the elder Bush's invasion of Panama ended with the removal of another despot he once supported, Manuel Noriega, Hussein's final exit could mark a reversal of current Iraq policies.  While no assurance of peace, that would be cause for quiet hope as the rest of America honors Gerald Ford and ponders what lies ahead in the new year.

UPDATE

The Washington Post reported late Friday on details of Bush's day, briefly interrupted by a tornado warning.

The rush to the tornado shelter interrupted Bush's day at the ranch where he cleared some cedar and was kept abreast of plans to execute Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

A New York Times article reports that fears of backlash in Iraq led Bush aides to reject the idea of a Bush television appearance, and instead take a low key approach.

When Mr. Hussein was captured, the president said: “Good riddance, the world is better off without you.” But he dismissed suggestions that a family grudge played a role in shaping his Iraq policy or influenced his decision to go to war. “My personal views,” he said, “aren’t important in this matter.”

But Mr. [Bruce] Buchanan, a longtime observer of the Bush political family in Texas, said that these were no ordinary archenemies and that setting aside personal views entirely seemed impossible. (NYT)

At Truthdig, Robert Scheer writes:

The irony here is that the crimes for which Saddam Hussein was convicted occurred before the United States, in the form of Donald Rumsfeld, embraced him. Those crimes were well known to have occurred 15 months before Rumsfeld visited Iraq to usher in an alliance between the United States and Saddam to defeat.

The fact is that Saddam Hussein knew a great deal about the United States’ role in Iraq, including deals made with Bush’s father. This rush to execute him had the feel of a gangster silencing the key witness to a crime.

At Nuremberg in the wake of World War II the U.S. set the bar very high by declaring that even the Nazis, who had committed the most heinous of crimes, should have a fair trial. The U.S. and allies insisted on this not to serve those charged, but to educate the public through a believable accounting. In the case of Saddam, the bar was lowered to the mud, with the proceedings turned into a political circus reminiscent of Stalin’s show trials.