I don’t know what is more surreal: Saddam Hussein yelling at witnesses of the prosecution during his trial or just the fact that I’m watching this man while he is on trial.

The only reasonable reason President George W. Bush and his cabinet ran by The Penguin (i.e. Vice President Cheney) have for invading Iraq and continuing the struggle over there is Hussein.

The weapons of mass destruction charges have practically been thrown out the window, so there goes any worldly threat that Bush can say he saved millions of people from.

But still there are the deplorable actions of Hussein and his brutal government. It would be easy to say that there are no denying the reports of women being raped and men being tortured under Hussein’s rule in Iraq, but the man himself seems to have no problem denying those reports while on trial.

The cover of www.cnn.com today showed a picture of Hussein raising his hand defiantly, with one of his cronies in the background doing the very same thing, while a prosecutor’s witness told of some of the horrific things he had seen in person.

Hussein was quoted as saying that the witness’s testimony was “laughable.” Maybe that is as telling a comment as any, because nowhere in between the words “women and rape” and “men and torture” do I even slightly chuckle.

But that is the kind of man we are watching, as he is being tried for his life’s actions as dictator of Iraq.

The surreal part is that a man of Hussein’s stature is being tried, and we can watch clips of it on television. I’m more used to the person in the courtroom who is on my television being a celebrity figure from the United States, perhaps O.J. Simpson or Michael Jackson.

But this trial and this man are not something we should be laughing at or even dismissing as something of not great importance.

The previously mentioned trials of O.J. and M.J. were humorous solely for the atmosphere they created. There was a media circus, there were rabid fans of each deploring the justice system and insisting the innocence of each.

But this trial, the one concerning a man who may have murdered thousands and may have created torture chambers to demoralize enemies, is not something to not think twice about.

Take one simple passage from CNN’s latest report from the trial; with this instance concerning the testimony of a citizen of the Iraqi city of Dujail named Ahmen Hassan Mohammed. He spoke of some of the ways torture was executed in Iraq under Hussein’s reign.

“They broke him. Broke his arm, his leg. This is during torture. They also shot at his foot, all of that during interrogation. He died under torture. They broke all of his body parts.”

This is the man Hussein said was lying and who’s testimony was “laughable.” Think twice about that, please.

Do not underestimate the significance of these accusations and the actions the accusations surround.

Hussein’s actions are deplorable things that many Americans just simply cannot comprehend. And I can’t blame you if you don’t comprehend these sorts of things, because I know that I can’t comprehend them.

They are just that horrible.