Daniel_

Hmm.

Let's think about this.

His crime (for which there seems to be a vast amount of evidence) was to ignore decency and the rule of "common law".

So summary execution is his way.

It might be fair to say "those who live by the sword shall die by the sword" but I feel that if he's going to be summarily executed for his past, then that makes his executioner as bad as him.

Personally I disagree with the death penalty on philosophical grounds - put simply, if it's wrong for a person to take life, then it has to be wrong for the state to take life.

Either way, giving the man a trial, even if he's a self evident monster, proves to ourselves and the world that we are not arbitrary and monstrous like we accuse him of being.

Sadly, his distortion of the local political scene was so great that it is almost certainly impossible to try him anywhere in the middle east and have it be fair; also having the trial in the west would cause local political problems of the "victor's justice" variety.

The problem with killing him out of hand and using his grave as a latrine is that it makes you look like spiteful conquerors and plays into the hands of the people that say the west only fought in Iraq out of spite and greed.

The British have a long history (centuries) of going to other lands and trying it - we most often came unstuck when we behaved like we had the right to dictate because of self evident natural justice (Cawnpore, Amritsar, American Revolution, etc) and did best when we behaved decently and gave a system of justice based on laws and evidence (our version of common law and jurisprudence forms a large part of the basis of the judicial system in most of the post colonial world, including the US).

So - to answer the OP - I do not believe he can get a fair trial, and I do believe that it matters.

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Overhead, the Albatross hangs motionless upon the air,
And deep beneath the rolling waves,
In labyrinths of Coral Caves,
The Echo of a distant time
Comes willowing across the sand;
And everthing is Green and Submarine
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