Saddam Hussein and the Mid-term Elections

© Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, November 5, 2006

The initial step toward justice was accomplished on Sunday when Saddam Hussein, late dictator of Iraq, together with Barzan Ibrahim, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half brother to Saddam, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's former Revolutionary Court, were sentenced to death by hanging for the 1982 massacre of some 148 people in the town of Dujail, after a failed assassination attempt against Saddam.  The sentence will automatically go to a court of appeals, which has unlimited time to review the case.  However, if the sentence is upheld, it must be carried out within 30 days of the appeals court decision.

Iraqi justice is very crude and cumbersome by our standards.  The notion that Saddam had a chance of receiving any thing other than what he received is ludicrous.  However, it was a far cry closer to justice than anything Saddam, or his minions, ever provided the Iraqi opposition when he was in power.  So don’t feel too badly for this Nebuchadnezzar wannabe!

A lot of the political pundits will find it interesting that Saddam’s trial concluded so conveniently close to the mid-term Congressional elections here in the United States.  They may reason that this will give the pro-Bush supporters a boost in the various contests around the nation.  I am not really sure that it will impact the election all that much. 

By and large, the American people are equally divided philosophically between liberal and conservative viewpoints.  While each side has members scattered all along the spectrum of their respective philosophies, there really isn’t that big of a “moderate” group of voters in the United States.  I would suspect it ranges about 7 to 8 %.

I suspect the election on Tuesday will turn on which group is successful in getting its “base” to the polls.  If the passion for change is strong enough among the Democrats and if they really press, I suspect they will take the House of Representatives and may have a shot at the Senate.  Equally, if the Republicans feel that their fiefdom is about to slip into chaos, and turn out in large numbers, they may easily maintain the Senate and, at least, mitigate their loss of control of the House of Representatives.

Regardless of the outcome, you and I need to be present at the polls come Tuesday.  The franchise (the right to vote) is the first duty of American citizenship.  All of the other freedoms we enjoy are predicated upon the notion that the citizens elect representatives (we call them a lot of things from councilmen, to commissioners, to Senators, to Congressmen, etc.) to make the laws that govern our lives and to protect and defend the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy.

Had we lived in Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein, we would not have had that opportunity.  Oh, we could have voted, but that vote would have had to have been for the list of Baathist candidates.  The other candidates listed on the ballot were mostly dead!

Had we lived in Iraq under Hussein, I would not have been able to write this column and criticize the leader, Saddam, like I have “Georgie” Bush.  Likely, I would have been dispatched early.

When we vote next Tuesday, we are striking a blow to maintain our republic.  Win or lose, our voices are being heard.

There should be NO such thing as a Congressional Pension System.  Senators and Representatives should be allowed to contribute to a 401 K while they are in office and the taxpayers should be allowed to contribute the employer part in the amount of up to the prime interest rate.  That should clear the two chambers of Congress of a lot of “lifetime legislative leeches.”

Of course, we will never enact the necessary constitutional amendments to put our house in order.  Instead, we will keep re-electing these political hacks term after term and marvel at the incompetence of our national government.  We have no one to blame but ourselves!