FOLLOWING World War II, there was no question who was victorious. The Allies obtained an absolute victory over Germany that had few comparisons in magnitude throughout history. The question then was what happened next and what should happen with the Nazi leaders that the Allies had captured.
Those Nazis captured were put on trial, most famously at Nuremberg where 24 of the highest ranking leaders of Nazi Germany went on trial for waging war against peace, and carrying out acts of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity. These trials held the people who waged the war responsible so that history could attest to the magnitude of their crimes.
The most important aspect of the trial were the witnesses who suffered directly at the hands of Nazi Germany, survived and then personally testified to the sadism inflicted on civilians during the war. There were individual testimonies of people who climbed out of mass graves from among thousands of dead bodies. These people who survived atrocities faced their tormentors and brought with them a powerful element to the trials that magnified why Germany’s leaders had to be put on trial to answer for their crimes.
The military victory that the Allies achieved was made complete by the moral victory that they won by holding open trials where the rule of law was extended to those who would never have offered it in return. During the Second Iraq War there was an attempt to achieve the same victory by imposing a complete military defeat on Ba’athist Iraq, Saddam Hussein, the Ba’ath Party and its leaders. The initial invasion of Iraq lasted a mere 21 days and was a military success.
However, the Coalition did not achieve the type of victory that was obtained in Europe following World War II. There are many reasons why this was the case, but the trial of Saddam Hussein was where the moral battle was lost. As he was led to his execution, the taunting by the masked loyal supporters of Muqtada Al-Sadr visibly confirmed what many had suspected throughout his trial that his guilt was predetermined and that Tehran had a part to play in this process, not the Iraqi people.
There was no question that Saddam Hussein was bad. Like Germany after World War II, Ba’athist Iraq was guilty of crimes against peace when Iraq fired ballistic missiles into neighboring countries, guilty of waging war or aggression when it invaded Kuwait and of war crimes when it used chemical weapons against civilians. The ability to permanently cement the military victory was lost. The possibility of forever burying and discrediting the Iraqi Ba’ath Party as a brutal instrument of rule crumbled to the point where it was perhaps martyred in the eyes of some while the sectarian divide only widened.
With Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS), the world now has a chance to clinch the moral victory following its military defeat. The crimes committed during the Syrian war and by Daesh rival those committed by Germany in World War II. Like Germany, Damascus and Daesh have intentionally waged a war against civilians, the like of which has not been seen since Nazi Germany. If we were to apply the Nuremberg principles to Damascus and Daesh, then we would see that both have waged wars against peace. Ba’athist Syria was instrumental in funding, logistically supporting and sponsoring Sunni terrorist groups in Iraq from 2003-2009. It was this that ultimately led to the formation of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and then Daesh. On this count, Damascus and Daesh are equally guilty.
In terms of waging a war of aggression, we see that Daesh invaded Iraq to seize Mosul as its provincial capital and Raqqa as the capital of its “state”, Daesh proclaimed itself as a state and then waged a war of aggression. In terms of war crimes, Daesh is guilty beyond any measure of doubt. When it comes to crimes against humanity, then Daesh can only be legitimately compared with Nazi Germany, Khmer Rouge and the leaders of Rwanda. Daesh has also been responsible for executions that rival the imagination of Hollywood, sexual slavery, the murder of entire families and tribes, and the destruction of antiquities.
Not all of the leaders of Daesh will be killed. Many will be captured. It is important for the region, and humanity, that they are put on trial. It is important that this trial be open, fair and not like the trial of Saddam. As in Nuremberg, the victims should have the opportunity to testify in the presence of their tormentors, face-to-face. They should be given the chance to share the personal details of the darkest depths of the pure evil these monsters imposed on men, women and children. They should be made to sit and listen to what they have done and hear from their victims how their lives were forever changed. Humanity needs to know: Did the leaders of Daesh operate on behalf of anyone? Who supported them from inside and outside the region? These are just a few of the questions for which we need answers.
Faisal Al-Shammeri
The author is a political analyst based in Washington DC. He tweets @mr_alshammeri
