Saddam Hussein's Confession

Yes, he says, he ordered the killings he's charged with. But he's not sorry.

THE TRIAL of Saddam Hussein achieved a rare and important moment of accountability this week. The former Iraqi leader acknowledged that he ordered the deaths of 148 civilians from the town of Dujail after a 1982 assassination attempt against him there. "That is one of the duties of the president," he testified under cross-examination. "I was convinced the evidence that was presented was sufficient." He conceded that he took only a cursory look at the evidence against the men and boys he condemned, all of whom were represented by only one lawyer at their "trial." That, he said, "is the right of the head of state." He denied that any of the victims were underage; prosecutors say 28 were minors. But he admitted the broad facts of the case against him. He does not deny that he is a mass murderer; he sees that as a perquisite of leadership.

The trial of Saddam Hussein has been far from perfect. Members of the defense team have been assassinated. Inside the courtroom there has been disorder, grandstanding and frequent delays. More disturbing, the moral authority of the current Iraqi government to conduct such a trial erodes as its Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry conducts abuses of its own -- including operating death squads in the country's escalating sectarian struggle. Even as some rough justice may be achieved for the 148 people Saddam Hussein had killed in this one case, it's impossible not to think of the civilians dying every day in Iraq.

Still, it is no small thing when a former dictator in the dock looks the world in the face and does not pretend that his crimes did not happen, merely that he had the lawful power to commit them. It clarifies history against those who would later deny it. It assigns responsibility where it properly belongs. His admissions came a day after the special tribunal responsible for his prosecution handed up new and far broader charges against him: that he was responsible for the infamous Anfal campaign, the killing not of hundreds but of tens of thousands of ethnic Kurds, including by poison gas. One can only hope the coming Anfal trial -- the first that begins to address the scope and magnitude of Saddam Hussein's crimes -- can achieve such clarity.