Muhammad Al-Shibani, m@alshibani.net

When dictators fall, no one feels very sorry for them. People are by and large happy over their demise for they come and go like thunderclap. Dictators quickly climb the ladder of power, usually with the help of the gun.

Their downfall is often brought about the betrayal of those very close to them — family members and confidants. These are people who were humiliated and betrayed by the dictator at different points but who swallowed their pride and waited for the right moment.

On his journey to the abyss, no one accompanies the dictator. Every one disavows him — family, friends, everyone. History, too, soon forgets the dictator. The statues, pictures, monuments and all other reminders all over the country soon disappear; brought down, burned and trampled underfoot. Suddenly, all the glory, fame and honor are gone. This is the fate that awaits tyrants and dictators all over the world. Saddam Hussein was no exception. Dictators may vary in the extent of their tyranny. Third World leaders as well as the one and only leader of the civilized world — let him who is without sin cast the first stone.

What is more important than putting Saddam Hussein on trial is the information he is going to give his American interrogators. Saddam is a treasure trove of secrets of every kind. The last thing the Americans will be interested in finding out about is the weapons of mass destruction.

Saddam has been both a direct and indirect player in all that the region went through over the past decades. The facts, secrets, unresolved mysteries and unanswered questions he carries with him could solve many of the conundrums that have so far baffled us. He will answer questions that no one else is in a position to answer.

But all this would be of no value to what the court the Americans set up to try him would seek to establish.

Saddam will try to use the last card available to him — his neck in return for telling his interrogators everything they want to know and much else besides. Saddam would not want to end up on the gallows — he isn’t the type.

He would much rather spend the rest of his life in prison. This is where the United Nations will probably want him too. Another reason why Saddam may be sentenced to life is that the court trying him may not find enough evidence to convict him of the crimes he has been accused of. He is capable of incriminating his aides instead.

A series of questions arises here. Will Saddam be willing to talk and tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, or will he continue with his lies and deception, hurling accusations at others with whom he has old scores to settle? Will it be enough to give him a lie detector test? Will the US in turn resort to fabricating statements and attribute them to Saddam in order to put pressure on other countries and leaders, something it is already doing?

It is obvious that those among the leaders of the region and Saddam’s cronies and friends, inside as well as outside Iraq, who have benefited from his rule would have preferred him dead rather than captured. Had Saddam died, all the allegations and false accusations that might be used to pressure, blackmail and settle scores with others would have been buried with him.

— Muhammad Al-Shibani is a Saudi writer based in Jeddah.