9:12 PM :: Stephen (contact)

Saddam as Hostage: Every time you think the Guardian can't sink any lower, they manage to surprise you. Here's a recent and appalling cartoon by Steve Bell:



Arbitrarily capturing and decapitating innocents; affording a murderous dictator a fair trial. Mr. Bell doesn't see any difference. Do you?

Meanwhile, on the print side, repellent MP George Galloway refers to Saddam's trial as a "show trial," a "rigged trial being carried out by criminals." He writes:

These people who are described as the "government" of Iraq are no such thing, and it follows that any judge they appoint is entirely illegitimate. These people are hand-picked puppets, stooges of the American occupation. Their judges are the puppets' puppets, the stooge's stooge. So there can be little doubt that it will be exactly what the Americans have decided it will be.

Funny, I don't remember Galloway complaining that the "government" of Syria is no such thing, or that its officials are stooges of the Assad regime. Yet Iraq's U.N.-recognized government is the one of the most broadly-based in the Arab world, and will be facing elections no later than Jan. 31. I also don't remember reading a single word of Galloway's column that expresses any joy that the dictator is now answering for his crimes--no surprise, given that he's one of Saddam's most persistent defenders.

Were British politics always this sick?