Lawlessness In Iraq and Washington

A recurring theme at the recent anti-US protest marches in Iraq - see Getty Images here - was a call for Saddam Huseein to finally be tried in court. Along with increased child malnourishment, failing electricity, sewerage and oil supplies, the failure to try Saddam is one of the great illuminating truths of the Bush administration's hypocritical rationales for invasion.

Like Afghanistan, Iraq is well on the way to becoming a lawless land. Forget questions of legitimacy for the US-backed government. Forget that the former-CIA PM kills people in cold blood. Just look at the endless daily examples of lawless behaviour. Here are today's stories:

- A record number of Iraqis - over 17,000 - are now languishing in Iraqi prisons like Abu Ghraib.

- US troops are accused of seizing Iraqi women to force their fugitive relatives to give up.

Why has Saddam not been tried? Because the legal system is not capable of it? Or because those in power fear what he has to say? Or is it simply that those who really pull the strings in Iraq - the war criminals in Washington - have an utter disregard for the law, both in their own country and internationally, which they see as nothing more than a mere inconvenience?

Update: It now seems the new Iraqi government, which cannot agree on anything else, is prepared to agree a deal with insurgents whereby Saddam will be spared the death penalty. Who says we don't do deals with terrorists?