Ancient Babylon flourished in Iraq's real "green zone" -- the Mesopotamian canals connecting the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Babylon, even in its current state of ruin, reflects Iraq's splendid history: the Eden of city-states, the consolidator and exporter of the Agricultural Revolution.
The modern mound above old Babylon's grand decay is another matter. At a distance, the white stone edifice on the hill isn't so hideous. But approach it, on foot or in a Humvee, and you'll see Saddam Hussein's Babylonian palace for the cruel marble kitsch it is.
Saddam's marble mound begs comparison to the poet Percy Shelley's trunkless stone leg eroding in the desert. "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings," Shelley's long-dead tyrant declared. "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Disgust, however, was my response when I examined Saddam's architecture. Perhaps money skimmed from the United Nations' corrupt Oil for Food program didn't pay for his Babylon playpen, but I'll guarantee its final price included a sea of Iraqi blood.
Unlike the lost victims of Shelley's despot, Saddam's victims aren't forgotten. Saddam's trial for mass murder in Dujail, Iraq, gave the survivors and the victims' relatives a forum to establish the facts. His trial for the murder of 180,000 Kurds in the late 1980s serves the same historical purpose. Despite Saddam's execution on Dec. 30, 2006, that trial for genocide will continue into 2007.
And well it should. For decades, Saddam's secret police silenced Iraqis. He used the tools of tyrant and terrorist: torture, assassination, mass murder. But now his victims testify, witnesses speak and the documented evidence mounts.
The next to last thing Saddam ever expected was a hangman's noose. The last thing he expected? A fair trial based on law and evidence.
Saddam got both. Despite Ramsey Clark's clucks and howls, Saddam's trial was fair. The evidence was presented. The toppled tyrant got to pose and parade and accuse, just like Serbian mass murderer Slobodan Milosevic did during his U.N.-sponsored trial for genocide. Saddam mimicked Slobo's courtroom antics and theatrics, then added his own "big mustache" brand of arrogant tirade. Saddam certainly got more than his fair share of global airtime.
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