Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging (1 Viewer)

[Gino Padula]

Who cares about Iraq? I honestly don't. A couple of hundred thousand people killed directly or indirectly by the Yanks. That's sad, but in the Democratic Republic of The Congo, approx 3 million people have been killed in the last 5 years. It's the "totally ignored" war and is the biggest conflict since World War II. That makes Iraq or any of this middle east shit small fry. A circus. It's sad and everything, but by DRC (and other African conflicts) standards, it's small fry.

The price of oil. AKA pain in the arse. Us getting wound up about it is the whole idea. Any excuse to push up the price of oil.

I think the Iranian Government and the American Government are doing a carefully choreographed dance that is in both of their interests and the likes of you and I are the losers.

 

[Space]

Who cares about Iraq? I honestly don't. A couple of hundred thousand people killed directly or indirectly by the Yanks. That's sad, but in the Democratic Republic of The Congo, approx 3 million people have been killed in the last 5 years. It's the "totally ignored" war and is the biggest conflict since World War II. That makes Iraq or any of this middle east shit small fry. A circus. It's sad and everything, but by DRC (and other African conflicts) standards, it's small fry.

The price of oil. AKA pain in the arse. Us getting wound up about it is the whole idea. Any excuse to push up the price of oil.

I think the Iranian Government and the American Government are doing a carefully choreographed dance that is in both of their interests and the likes of you and I are the losers.

Th Iranian government?

 

[steve albino]

in the Democratic Republic of The Congo, approx 3 million people have been killed in the last 5 years. It's the "totally ignored" war and is the biggest conflict since World War II. That makes Iraq or any of this middle east shit small fry.

Ok,
maybe you could start a thread about this and fill people in on what's been going on? I look forward to reading it.

 

[Corey]

This is a moot point. American involvment or no, iraq is rid of Hussein. It's now vital that iraq identifys itself as the being leading factor in his removal from office, regardless of how true this is. They have a long, long hard road ahead of them, and must start out with at least some sense of achievement at having changed things; regardles of how fucked their country is at the moment.

You can bitch and moan and criticise america's involvement until the shiek comes home; and while most the criticism is valid; wasting time making an issue of how it was done is only going to slow down progress in re-building the country's infrastructure. One step forward, two steps back, etc.

I can appreciate the many local levels and attitudes regarding his sentence; still dunno about killing the cunt though.

 

[Janer]

Th Iranian government?

Iran benefits greatly from a weakened Iraq and with the majority population the same as themselves ie Shias the future looks rosy for them.
At the same time Iran can't be seen to be backing anything the US does in Iraq..........

As for the DR debacle that wasn't brought on by foreign countries invading it on lies.

 

[Pantone247]

I can appreciate the many local levels and attitudes regarding his sentence; still dunno about killing the cunt though.

I agree with you there... it's a bit old school isn't it. Like something he might do himself

 

[Space]

Iran benefits greatly from a weakened Iraq and with the majority population the same as themselves ie Shias the future looks rosy for them.
At the same time Iran can't be seen to be backing anything the US does in Iraq..........

As for the DR debacle that wasn't brought on by foreign countries invading it on lies.

That's all well and good that the Iranian's might have some benifit from a weakened Iraq, but doing a carefully choreographed dance for mutual benifit is about bit far fetched in my opinion anyhow. I think the biggest benifactors would the Americans and Saudis and any benifit to Iran is just a side effect.

 

[taubstumm]

lara marlowe in today's irish times:

Curtain comes down on a piece of theatre

Analysis: The biggest surprise of all would be if the execution of Saddam Hussein actually lessened the butchery into which Iraq has descended, writes Lara Marlowe.

Saddam Hussein listened to the verdict with the concentrated look of a stage actor waiting to deliver his lines. The words "death by hanging" were the cue for his well-rehearsed outburst: "Long live the people! Long live the nation! Down with the traitors! Down with the invaders! God is great!"

Since the former US administrator Paul Bremer announced on December 14th, 2003, "Ladies and gentlemen, we got him!" there was a certain inevitability to yesterday's sentencing in Baghdad.

When Saddam was captured, President George Bush said he should be executed. In the first week of its existence, the interim Iraqi government created by the US at the end of June 2004 restored capital punishment and arraigned Saddam Hussein.

US and Iraqi determination to hang Saddam was one reason the trial could not be turned over to a more orderly international forum. When Saddam's trial finally started in October 2005, the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani said Saddam "deserves to be executed 20 times a day for his crimes".

In retrospect, Saddam's declaration in his first court appearance 28 months ago that "This is all theatre" was surprisingly apt. So was a December 2005 outburst by his half-brother Barzan, also sentenced to hang yesterday. "Why don't you just execute us and get this over with?" Barzan challenged the court.

Despite the predictability of yesterday's death sentence, Iraq has a way of surprising us, invariably for the worse. Saddam Hussein is the world's best-guarded prisoner, but he could die in his cell like Slobodan Milosevic.

His supporters might attempt a spectacular, suicidal jail break. Most likely, we'll wake up one morning to hear he was hanged at dawn.

The biggest surprise of all would be if the execution of Saddam Hussein actually lessened the butchery into which Iraq has descended. The scale of the killing defies the imagination: on Friday, 56 headless cadavers were discovered. How do you decapitate 56 people? With guillotines? With axemen? We heard predictions of improvement when Saddam's sons Uday and Qusay were killed by US Marines, and again when Saddam was arrested, and again when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was killed. No one ventured such a prediction yesterday.

There was a brief temptation to think Saddam's execution would at last put an end to fantasies among Sunni Muslims that he might one day return to power. But despite their nostalgia for Saddam, the Sunnis long ago realised he would not return to power. They are fighting for other things now. A few dream of the "radical Islamic empire that stretches from Spain to Indonesia" described by Mr Bush. Some hate the Shia Muslims they consider to be Iranian proxies and heretics. Many simply want foreign forces out of their country.

If there is a political fantasy among Iraqis and occupiers alike, it is for the advent of a new "strong man". The Americans tried once, with the appointment of former Baathist and long-time CIA and MI6 agent Ayad Allawi as prime minister in 2004. Allawi was known as "little Saddam" but scored poorly in subsequent elections.

The installation of a "strong man" who could control Iraq is reportedly one option considered by the former US secretary of state James Baker, who will report to the Bush administration in January.

For Iraqis, the fate of Saddam was long ago overshadowed by their own desperate struggle to survive. In Baghdad, when Saddam was arraigned, and again when his trial opened, it was hard to escape the impression that western media were far more interested in his trial than Iraqis were.

From the beginning, Saddam's trial had the words "Made in America" stamped all over it. In July 2004, an American who was at Saddam's arraignment told me why television cameras showed only three people: Saddam, the judge and a guard. Everyone else who was present - more than 30 people - was American. Yesterday, one suspected that Saddam's sentencing had far more to do with Bush's fear of losing Congress to the Democrats tomorrow than with the future of Iraq.

Yes, some Kurds and Shia Muslims, Saddam's main victims, celebrated his sentencing yesterday. But, as early as July 2004, I heard a Shia who had been tortured and imprisoned for 10 years by Saddam say the country was better off before the US invasion. A few days ago in Paris, a Kurd who was granted political asylum in France from Saddam's Iraq told me the same thing.

Three-and-a-half years after the US invasion, the arithmetic of slaughter has relativised Saddam Hussein's evil. The fallen dictator was convicted of crimes against humanity for the murder of 148 Shia Muslims in Dujail in 1982; 148 is not an unusual death toll for a single day in post-Saddam Iraq.

How many people did Saddam kill? Three hundred thousand in 35 years was the oft-stated estimate when his trial started; well in excess of one million, if he is held responsible for the deaths of the 1980-1988 Gulf War, which he prosecuted with western support. But who, one must ask, is responsible for the deaths caused by the 2003 invasion, estimated by British medical journal The Lancet last month at 655,000?

One of Saddam's French lawyers said yesterday that he was not trying to save a dictator, but was leading a crusade against the death penalty. It is unfortunate that the verdict, however predictable, leaves such a deep sense of flouted justice: that Iraq was not able to rise above a violent past and ban capital punishment; that the international community was not allowed to organise an orderly trial for such a despicable criminal.

Saddam Hussein reportedly smiled when he walked out of the courtroom yesterday. It was a barely perceptible, ironic little smile of vengeance, a smile that signified, I suspect, "après moi, le déluge".

 

[Dixer]

I'm inclined to agree with Be The Hokey on this one. For a start, the whole thing lacks the PR sheen of say, the "Ladies and Gentelmen, we got him!" of Saddams original capture. Yeah its front page news but its hardly a surpise or a coup of any sorts. Everybody knew this was coming. Plus, it hasn't actually happened, i.e. there's the whole appeal etc. Saddam's political capital has long been spent.
Also, BTH is right to say its too convenient to link the two. Its such an obvious populist leftist position to jump to and whats more, the 'audience' for this sort of theatre is getting wise to the whole malarkey. Thats why the reps. are so fcked in the first place.
Even the fact that almost everybody is making the link suggests how old this rope is. If thats a PR stunt, you could say its backfired.
This is more interesting from a tactical perspective, I think:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/republican-fake-phone-call-scandal.html

 

[Janer]

Your hokeys best m8 and were literally forced at gunpoint to come here and say that....I derepped you for the sheer audacity of it all.

 

[Dixer]

Cool,
which part was a lie re: yr comment?

 

[Jerry Twig]

That's your problem Janer. I don't know Dixler but I admire someone else who is more interested in assessing the entire situation than jumping the gun (with no evidence) to suit his own agenda. This applies to everyone else here, in fact, bar yourself, 42 years old and talking about 'de-repping' people. seriously.
I may well be entirely wrong Janer, but that remains to be seen. The difference between you and me is that I am perfectly fine with that.

 

[Pantone247]

This is more interesting from a tactical perspective, I think:
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/11/republican-fake-phone-call-scandal.html

haven't they done that before?

I'd agree with Dixer and Hokey, I don't think the verdict was announced to coincide with the election, but I DO think certain wings of the media, say F*X and the many other M*rdoch news networks, will make a real meal of it, despite the fact there is an appeal to be heard etc, etc, etc

 

[Goff]

It's intesteresting to note that according to the herald AM this morning, they have Saddam quoted as sayin the usual "Traitors, Damn the Invaders!", etc. Whereas underneath that, there's a note that his lawyer has said the former president stated that he hopes people wil lnot take revenge against the invaders and the current govt.

With a defence like that, who needs enemies?

This thing has been planned from the start. The timing might be a coincidence, but I very much doubt it.

 

[hugh]

As for the DR debacle that wasn't brought on by foreign countries invading it on lies.

Actually it was, but that's really another thread.

I don't believe this thing was timed either. If the republican party could control the timing of the court's decision that closely why not time the actual execution for today? Or are they holding that off for 2008?

 

[Pantone247]

I don't believe this thing was timed either. If the republican party could control the timing of the court's decision that closely why not time the actual execution for today? Or are they holding that off for 2008?

SUPERBOWL HALF-TIME SHOW!!!!

 

[Dixer]

SUPERBOWL HALF-TIME SHOW!!!!

Beware 'Wardrobe Malfunction'.

"Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
Estragon: (highly excited). An erection!"

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

I think the judge in the trial should replace Paula Abdul on american idol.

 

[The Schnapper]

Terrible news for me and my people.

 

[La La]

I'm inclined to agree with Be The Hokey on this one. For a start, the whole thing lacks the PR sheen of say, the "Ladies and Gentelmen, we got him!" of Saddams original capture. Yeah its front page news but its hardly a surpise or a coup of any sorts. Everybody knew this was coming. Plus, it hasn't actually happened, i.e. there's the whole appeal etc. Saddam's political capital has long been spent.
Also, BTH is right to say its too convenient to link the two. Its such an obvious populist leftist position to jump to and whats more, the 'audience' for this sort of theatre is getting wise to the whole malarkey. Thats why the reps. are so fcked in the first place.

and there ya have it.

Your hokeys best m8 and were literally forced at gunpoint to come here and say that....I derepped you for the sheer audacity of it all.

the grammar, lack of punctuation and derepping debacle.
snorefest 2006.

That's your problem Janer. I don't know Dixler but I admire someone else who is more interested in assessing the entire situation than jumping the gun (with no evidence) to suit his own agenda. This applies to everyone else here, in fact, bar yourself, 42 years old and talking about 'de-repping' people. seriously.
I may well be entirely wrong Janer, but that remains to be seen. The difference between you and me is that I am perfectly fine with that.

hear hear hokey.

haven't they done that before?

I'd agree with Dixer and Hokey, I don't think the verdict was announced to coincide with the election, but I DO think certain wings of the media, say F*X and the many other M*rdoch news networks, will make a real meal of it, despite the fact there is an appeal to be heard etc, etc, etc

and that just about sums up how i feel.
the GOP have pounced on this and are using it to inject some adrenaline into the last furlong of this race to the polls.
that some people think the whole thing is orchestrated is a bit of a conjecture....