The man’s a bona fide survivor, isn’t he? Hundreds of thousands of his victims inside and outside Iraq are dead. His sons are dead. Thousands of people mired in the mess he left have recently died. But Saddam Hussein lives on. He’s harder to kill than a cockroach in the deepest crevice, more difficult to eliminate than metastasizing cancer. It’s even tougher to kill this guy than it was to terminate Hitler. The Fuehrer, at least, was willing to kill himself. Saddam Hussein will never do that. He’s going to try to carry on forever, denouncing his enemies as dogs and curs, and doubtless planning long diatribes he’s unlikely to be permitted to deliver. He’ll have opportunities to speak in the courtroom, of course, but the rules have changed and he’ll eventually have to accept he really is the former President of Iraq.

For the time being, he is also a man who’s had to appear in court without the internationally-mandated right to have an attorney by his side. Furthermore, no Iraqi reporters were allowed to attend, and initial video footage was released without sound to the media. Later, the tapes were censored and re-released. Can you imagine an occupying power denying American reporters access to a trial here of a former leader of this country? It’s outrageous. The Bush administration must make sure that Saddam’s new legal team – see the column of July ninth below – has full access to its client and can represent him in court. Without those fundamental rights, Arabs and others will see this trial as a sham and another insult ground into their faces by the world’s solitary and ever-righteous superpower.

The United States is entirely correct, however, in dictating that this trial will not be televised either live or on a delayed basis. Doing so would give the charismatic Saddam a chance to rhetorically attack the invaders of his country, and his passion would resonate with a significant segment of the population. Even without much footage from the courtroom, Saddam’s perceived bravery and willingness to fight the occupiers might still win some support. How much support? And how would that empathy manifest? That depends on the economic and social progress in Iraq. If people have security and sustenance, then not more than ten percent would passionately support Saddam, and their passion would usually be expressed in nonviolent ways. But if the United States and the new Iraqi government cannot enhance peace and prosperity, a large segment of Iraqis will distort the prism of recent history and view Saddam as a strong and effective leader who spat at the infidels. Remember the early years of the new democratic Russia. As poverty and crime increased, many older people yearned for the days of Stalin, of certitude wrought by repression, and Stalin had already been dead forty years.

Saddam yet lives. Let his existence motivate those who want to embrace democracy and forever bury the brutality and incompetence of the past. That will require realistic thinking and truthful statements. In other words, the Bush administration is going to have to stop the irritating mantra: “It’s only Al-Quaeda and other foreign elements perpetrating violence in Iraq.” That’s garbage. On July ninth, the Associated Press released an article quoting United States military officials who insist the insurgency is comprised of far more than five thousand men. Hell, the U.S. killed four thousand in April, and still has more enemies now than then. The officials logically explained that the insurgents are led by Iraqi Sunnis outraged at losing their power and privileges when Saddam scurried into a hole. There are dozens of regional cells, many led by tribal sheiks, that can summon “part-time fighters to boost forces as high as twenty thousand.” The cells are well-designed to raise hell. According to military analysts cited by the AP, one Baghdad cell is comprised of two leaders, one assassin, and two groups of bomb makers.

It’s difficult to tabulate all the times in recent months that unnamed U.S. officials have said the insurgents have so much support “they cannot be militarily defeated.” That opinion was again reported on July ninth. Does the Bush administration read these reports? We must presume that George W. Bush does not because he doesn’t like to read or study or be contradicted or have his rigid doctrines in any way challenged. His world, like that of the hapless Dick Cheney, is eternally simple: the bad guy is only who we say he is and he is not from Iraq, not now that Saddam’s in custody. But as the death toll of American soldiers soars, maybe someone else in the administration will read the report to Bush. Regardless, he is soon going to have to admit the truth. Many Iraqis are unhappy about the occupation. And since they can’t be militarily defeated and repressed in perpetuity, the solution will have to come through diplomacy. Relationships between Iraqi democrats and insurgents must be established. Shared objectives, such as having decent jobs and enough to eat, must be emphasized. If insurgents can be convinced that a peaceful and prosperous Iraq is being built, then most of them will throw away their rifles and bombs and pick up hammers and computer chips.