Iaq VII: Mr. Softee Booted From Saddam Trial

The chief judge in the genocide trial of Saddam Hussein was removed from the case Tuesday after he said last week that Saddam was “not a dictator.”

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki decided to remove the judge, Abdullah al-Amiri, because he had “hurt the feelings’’ of many Iraqis with comments that seemed to support the . . . uh, dictator.

While the decision of the U.S. to allow Iraq to try Saddam may have been well intentioned, the result has been chaotic and deadly with the assassination of several lawyers and resignations of others. Shipping Saddam off to the Hague for a trial before an international tribunal would have been a much better idea.

More here.