# If you're the guy who has to defend Sadaam... **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 17, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484 "2003-12-17T06:36:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/21 "2003-12-17T20:25:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Enderw24 \* > **Spiny Norman** , those two defenses seem at odds with each other. If you claim the actions were legal, aren’t you then admitting that he ordered said actions? You are obviously not trained as a lawyer. This is done all the time. For the defense to say “a) my client didn’t do it and (b) even if he did do what he is accused of it is not a crime” is perfectly acceptable and done all the time. Argument (b) does in no way negate argument (a). It makes NO sense for you to say “If you claim the actions were legal, aren’t you then admitting that he ordered said actions?” No, you are not. > [@](#): > > Also, the difference between Nuremberg’s defense and this one is that Hitler was never on trial. Huh? What’s _that_ got to do with anything? The difference between Nuremberg and Saddam Hussein is that one is more like a navigable triangle and the other one is more like a boxed meow. Your honor. ---
**Author:** ![SentientMeat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@SentientMeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SentientMeat)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/22 "2003-12-17T20:53:26Z")
> [@](#): > > Saddam can be accused of crimes against peace for having waged an aggressive war and invasion of a sovereign. Oh dear. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be if this was _all_ he was convicted of, indeed executed for? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/23 "2003-12-17T21:09:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SentientMeat \* > \*\*Oh dear. Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be if this was _all_ he was convicted of, indeed executed for? \*\* That _exact_ thought had occurred to me, yes. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/24 "2003-12-17T21:27:59Z")
There’d certainly be a new reference example to include with the formal definition of irony. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/25 "2003-12-18T00:22:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RickJay \* > \*\*Genocide is a pretty weak charge against Hussein. Starting an aggressive war (not this one, but the Iran-Iraq War and the 1991 invasion of Kuwait) would be a much easier charge, and there’s precedent for it. \*\* Somehow I doubt that the US would be particularly interested in having the exact legal definition of “starting an aggressive war” discussed in front of the world. The risk of that backfiring is too high. If I were to defend SH on that charge (which again, I’d really rather not), I’d try to establish that the current invasion and the 1991 invasion of Kuwait are legal equivalents - i.e., if my client needs to get shot for this, when is GWB’s court date again ? Could make for some interesting court TV… ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/26 "2003-12-18T01:24:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SentientMeat \* > \*\*…it is possible that the mass-gassings we have all heard about were actually [unintentional or even Iranian](http://forums.transnationale.org/viewtopic.php?t=1458). > > \*\* Unintentional? Easily done eh? One minute you’re happily mucking about with nerve gas, next minute… Whoops! If I were Saddams brief I would go for the ‘slipped on the bathmat’ defence… After all, I doubt if that wonderful Public Service Broadcast ‘Never put a rug on a newly polished floor’ found it’s way to Iraq… (‘and to think, he’d only just come out of hospital…’) Step forward Michael Coward… ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/27 "2003-12-18T03:41:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Spiny Norman \* > \*\*Somehow I doubt that the US would be particularly interested in having the exact legal definition of “starting an aggressive war” discussed in front of the world. The risk of that backfiring is too high. If I were to defend SH on that charge (which again, I’d really rather not), I’d try to establish that the current invasion and the 1991 invasion of Kuwait are legal equivalents - i.e., if my client needs to get shot for this, when is GWB’s court date again ? Could make for some interesting court TV… \*\* I saw the irony before I posted the message. The thing is, I don’t think the U.S. administration cares about the irony. They’re operating almost wholly on might-makes-right at this point. The entire pretense for the invasion has been conclusively demonstrated to be an absolute farce and a stack of lies, and yet Bush still enjoys popular support. It’s now being presented as a war against terrorism, which is somewhat akin to invading Belgium in response to the actions of North Korea, and yet the latest poll puts him at 63%. Why should they give a damn? Who can stop his administration from doing as it pleases? They need Hussein dead, and so, I assure you, Hussein will die. ---
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/28 "2003-12-20T22:22:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Given this material to work with, is there any aspiring barrister out there who wishes the chance to be known forever after as “the lawyer who got Saddam off”? Don’t know about ‘aspiring’, this guys got plenty of previous! [Giovanni Di Stefano](http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2319290) ---
**Author:** ![Daoloth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/82dd89/32.png) [@Daoloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daoloth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484/29 "2003-12-20T22:28:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SentientMeat \* > \*\*Incidentally, the charges of genocide are actually not quite so cut-and-dried as one might think. For example, it is possible that the mass-gassings we have all heard about were actually [unintentional or even Iranian](http://forums.transnationale.org/viewtopic.php?t=1458). > > The Marsh Arabs were, indeed, driven off their land in the thousands, but not too many were killed AFAIK, certainly not enough to warrant the term “genocide”. > \*\* Even given that the gassings were unintentional or foreign, it still must be noted that Operation al-Anfal destroyed over 1,000 Kurdish villages. So what happened to the Kurds and Marsh Arabs could still very well be “ethnic cleansing,” if not genocide (at least with the Kurds). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-youre-the-guy-who-has-to-defend-sadaam/219484.md?page=1)