Given that the Nobel Prize committee has historically had no trouble accepting nominations of terrorists and tyrants for the Nobel Peace Prize, Saddam Hussein has to be seriously considered as a nominee next time around. After all, he made a spirited call for Iraqis to stop their sectarian fighting during his trial today:
Saddam, dressed in a black suit and wearing large reading glasses, repeatedly brushed off the judge's demands that he address the charges against him — the killing of 148 Shiites and the imprisonment and torture of others during a crackdown in the 1980s.
Instead, he read from a prepared text, addressing the "great Iraqi people" — a phrase he often used in his presidential speeches — and said he was "pained" by the recent wave of Sunni-Shiite violence.
"Let the people unite and resist the invaders and their backers. Don't fight among yourselves," he said, praising the insurgency.
"In your resistance to the invasion by the Americans and Zionists and their allies, you were great. You were great in my eyes and you remain so. ... It's only a matter of time until the sun rises and you'll be victorious," he said.
The judge tried to steer Hussein back to the topic at hand:
"You are a defendant in a major criminal case, concerning the killing of innocents. You have to respond to this charge," Abdel-Rahman told him.
"What about those who are dying in Baghdad? Are they not innocents?" Saddam replied. "I am talking to the Iraqi people."
In his speech, Saddam told Iraqis that "of all religions and sects ... I do not discriminate among you."
"What pains me most is what I heard recently about something that aims to harm our people," he said, referring to Shiite-Sunni violence that has rocked the country since the bombing of a major Shiite shrine in Samarra last month.
He blamed "criminals" for the shrine bombing and the attacks on Sunni mosques that followed, and urged Iraqis to unite. "What happened in the last days is bad," he said. "You will live in darkness and rivers of blood for no reason."
That's right. Saddam Hussein. Man of peace.
But wait . . . further research reveals that Saddam Hussein has already received the Nobel Peace Prize for his earlier efforts. I must have missed that news. The details are here.
We can only conclude that Saddam Hussein really, really likes peace. The Iraqis should let him go immediately so he can go improve the situation in Baghdad.
And just think: If they release Saddam and impeach Bush, the world will be right back to where leftists have wanted it all along.
Arafat and then Hussein - that would give the Nobel committee a rush!
Posted by: Washington | March 15, 2006 at 07:27 PM