Saddam's guilt, Bush's war

By Michael J.W. Stickings

In my view, one of the best commentaries on the guilty verdict in Saddam's trial comes from Steve Clemons at The Washington Note. He says it succinctly and he says it well. Here is his post in full:

Of course, he is guilty. Hussein was always guilty, whether established by a court of peers or not.

What irritates is how the trial of this strong-man has become the face of both the Bush administration's biggest triumph and largest mistake in the war against Iraq.

The Bush administration gets credit for taking down Hussein, real and in statue, but they too deserve every bit of the credit for unleashing the virulent currents of sectarian killing and convulsion in Iraq, all of the responsibility for removing the chief constraint on Iran's actions in the region, and all of the kudos for giving radical Islamism reward after reward in the region.

Saddam Hussein's head will be a prize that Shia extremists thank America for while they continue to do their best to eradicate Sunnis from Iraq.

Bush deserves all of the credit for the Hussein trial and conviction -- and all of the horrors unleashed around it.

And those horrors aren't about to end, death or no death for Iraq's convicted tyrant.