The death sentence of Tariq Aziz

I was quite surprised to hear that Tariq Aziz had been sentenced to death by the sub-standard Iraqi courts setup after the American occupation of Iraq. Compared to the other members of the Ancien Régime his hands were considered to be relatively bloodless. He was also, unusually for Saddam's other colleagues in the Iraqi Baath party, urbane, well-educated, articulate - and Christian. For all these reasons, it never really occurred to me that he might suffer the same harsh fate as the others. Yet such, it seems, is the nature of the beast.

It is a harsh, Chekhovian, justice which comes to my mind now. Not for the sham charges and ceremonial pomp surrounding the Iraqi courts and their comical judges, but for the dramatic end that has befallen this rag-tag gang of brave, yet ruthless, men who had risked everything - and done anything - to seize power, hold it, and finally to protect it from being wrenched from their fingers by American soldiers and mercenaries. They were all in it together, for better or for worse, and they nearly pulled it off. Nearly. Tariq Aziz is neither a monster nor a saint, but a man of his times. A fine comrade, loyal to his leader, and one who will die by the sword, as he lived by it. Like Saddam, he will hang not for any ridiculous moral judgements passed by those judges, but because he lost the war...