The verdict's in, and Saddam is sentenced to hang.
There's no doubt that Saddam richly deserved any sentence he received, due to the overwhelming evidence against him. I was sold the moment I heard of the children's prisons. Even Scott Ridder (a peace activist) spoke of the horrors of those children's prisons and said he would not repeat what he saw, for fear of escalating the war even further. The barmy allegation that they were merely "orphanages" is not to be suffered.
Zainab Salbi is a very strong woman who grew up under the thumb of Saddam Hussein. I remember reading some of her chilling memories of the complete and abject fear that even the people who were closest to him shared with the lowest of his victims.
Perhaps CNN's leadership should hang with Saddam, since they contributed to the evil by covering up the atrocities in order to maintain a bureau in Bagdad. Their complicity encouraged his feeling of omnipotence and allowed the atrocities to continue for much longer than they might have. Of course there are so many people to blame here, including every past administration that turned their eyes away from the suffering and allowed them to pass almost unnoticed.
Along with Saddam will hang his half brother, Barzan Ibrahim, who is almost equally sadistic and murderous.
Whether Saddam is Muslim, Jewish, or Christian... Whether he is Shiite or Sunni... Whether he is Iraqi or American... he deserves to hang. But I am afraid that the trial took so long, and so few people followed it, that we may have forgotten exactly what he did.
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You know me, I don't buy it. Why? Saddam was supported and funded by Western governments (well, the US and UK) who gave him the means to carry out acts of terror and they had full knowledge of his actions but still talked turkey with him.
Surely they are complicite in the acts?
*cough*
And if he hangs then Bush and Blair who have committed war crimes (as in the buck stops with them) should also soon be swinging...
PS: trial was a farce and no efforts at justice and correct procedure were made, the death penalty in ANY circumstance is grotesque and the US manipulated events like the worst theocracy.
Just so we're clear.
Daniel, thanks for weighing in. I agree, our administration definately has some blame in the whole thing, since they sent aid to Hussein in the past. However, the aid dried up some time ago. Did they know then what they came to find out later? Perhaps.
I didn't get a chance to view the entire trial, but I do need to point out that it wasn't a trial that took place in our court system.
I'm with DHG. No matter how much of an a-hole he is, giving him a manipulated trial and sentencing him to death is sinking to his level.
Remember when he was first arrested? He was without legal representation for SEVERAL MONTHS. An unacceptable violation of prisonner's rights in the land of the free.
Being self-righteous comes with a price: one has to be perfect in order to afford it. As far as I'm concerned, no-body is THAT good.
Thanks for raising the debate, Saur !
I think you have it right. Who funded what doesn't excuse the atrocities. And if there is an appeal...how much longer...how much more amnesia? And what will the eventual hanging bring to Iraq? Probably, even more chaos that at the moment.
Saur,
I've gotten bored with lethal injections and the electric chair. This will be a great change of pace.
Get a rope -
He is such an evil man.
They should have put a bullet in his crainium the instant he was seen in the rat hole hiding hiding like the coward he is.
Your thoughts on cnn are good, hey they could do it while Cnn was on air and the downside would be no one would see it.
I know DHG and other Dems, lefties whatever comment and I am for discussion but I wonder what the respose is to the lib cable shows being abused by fox is?
jsull
I'm with eshuneutics. Hussein should die.
What shocks me is the 149?? is it? deaths he is being accused of? Only 149?
It's the children's prisons, over 5,000 Kurdish civilians (men, women, children) gassed and murdered in Halabja (*note: link has a graphic picture) as reported around the world. Time Life covered this story well. That was the pinnacle of fighting from 87-89. That was almost 20 years ago.
I also found another engaging article on Hussein, the lack of action by the world powers, and the US in their support funding.
Something should have been done 20 years ago but at least we are in stride. 75% of the countries that we fund with OUR dollars..my TAX DOLLARS, are countries that hate us (I know. Another post entirely.)
Under the first Bush administration and Regan administration, Saddam got american support while he conducted all his crimes. We supported him against Iran. Blame past administrations bothers me, because you blame the two that made him. But including clinton there is silly, saddam did not commit any obvious crimes while clinton was in office, and clinton did try to contain him and disarm him (and it turns out it worked). Lets be clear on our blame.
I personally have no confidence in this trial. He was going to be found guilty no matter what, and is it at all strange that the trial suddenly ended two days before the elections? I mean it has lasted over a year, and I saw no warning that it was going to end. This was quite a shock that they just dropped so quickly.
My only problem with all this is that we have used almost 2900 American soldier's lives to date in order to accomplish this goal while Osama is still alive, Iran is now threatening to sale it's technology and North Korea now has the bomb.
The trial was about the 149 killed for several reasons
1. He was tried for killing Shia Muslims, the 5,000 killed were kurds. Nobody really cares about them.
2. Guess who sold Hussien the gas he used on the kurds? The gas canisters had big ole "Made in the USA" stickers on them. Of course, we sold it to him for use on Iran.
This is the funny thing about foreign policy. The USA has a long track record of screwing things up. In the 80s we knew Hussien was crazy and brutal - but because Iran took those hostages the Regan Administration was hell bent on supporting anyone against Iran. Just like the USA gave arms and training to the Taliban in Afganistan because they were fighting the Russians.
Bush #1 changed the Iraq policy from "lets sell them chemical weapons" to containment. Hussien was boxed in. Yea, he was still there but at least the nation was stable. Why do you think Bush #1 called off the dogs when the US tanks were just outside Baghdad in 1990?
Clinton pretty much just continued the policy of Bush #1. When Saddam tried to lock missles on some Nato jets, the jets turned the launchers into metal dust. Message sent.
Bush #2, in his infinate wisdom, decided that he had a better idea. So now an estimated 500,000 civilans in Iraq have been killed (Saddam was tried for killing 150), along with close to 3,000 American Troops. Hussien will be hanged, but the government is unstable. The Shia majority, closer to Iran than anyone else in the world, is poised to take power. And US Troops will have to be there for who knows how much longer - standing in the middle of what IS a civil war no matter what the White House wants to call it (Bush thinks it is not a Civil War because there are no muskets in use).
The world is better off? It is way soon to tell that. Wait another 10 or 15 years. Only then will we know what the end result of the war will be.
Bush can say all he wants that the world is better off, but I wonder if anyone who lives in Iraq would agree. Hussien is gone, but the death squad militias are more numerous than ever before. And the estimated 500,000 civilian deaths dwarfs any one act Hussien ever did.
The issue is no longer should the troops stay or go. The issue now is WHY were they sent in the first place?
Powell supposedly once said "you break it, you buy it" regarding Iraq. Well Bush broke it. So now there IS no way out. There is no end game. There is no plan for victory. There is no standing army to kill, and there are no treaties to sign.
Bush saying "we will win" is NOT a plan for victory.
R2K,
I would say Clinton is just as guilty as any other. Saddam was a murderer during the Reagan administration so it would stand to reason that Saddam was still guilty of being a murderer during the Clinton administration, even if Saddam was squeaky clean (highly unlikely) when Clinton was in office.
I also blame the UN (personally, an utter worthless organization)and other world powers that also sat on their hither regions while thousands upon thousands of people died in the name of Saddam's idea of God.
Clinton was not really in a position to do anyhting. After all, Iraq was out of Kuwait. And every time Clinton tried to use troops to stabilize the world the republican held congress accused him of being a "draft dodger who now sends troops off to be the world police" or "someone who hates the military now using it as a tool of the UN" or even "distracting us from the important scandals".
And the public was not really into it either. People just did not understand what was going on. Terrorism was something that did not happen in the USA. It always happened "over there".
In the 1980s, the UN was held captive by the USA and USSR. Saddam was our buddy, so nothing was going to happen to him. No matter what. The USSR did not trust Iran fully, and was having their own problems.
The UN can only work IF the bully nations do not use their power and wealth to force things their way. And of course this will never happen. The Security Council makes all the decisions, and right now it is all about what the USA, Russia, and China wants. Not a very good mix really. And as China gets stronger....well lets just forget about that for now.
Lazy Iguana,
You make good points. It was definitely a different era.
Geez, what I have to learn about politics and history! My homeschooled upbringing left a great deal of questions once I became of age to vote. My parents (doing the best they could) educated me on politics, starting with the mandatory reading of the Autobiography of Rush Limbaugh...HAHAHA. You can see my learning curve has had to be steep. In 1980 I was a whole 7 years old so the first Bush administration is the first one I actually took notice of.
Kathleen: the trial was a fraud, defence lawyers killed and not given protection, judges changed and massive interference from the US regime. No one, outside of the US/UK axis, believes it was fair.
Aunt Joe: evil? *cough* no, if he's evil then many people who run your country are complicite in evil.
JS: your incoherent babble is just that, speak facts!
Emma: guess who sold him the gas and made a tidy profit? The UK first and then the US. YAY! WE KILLED KURDS!!!
I suddenly feel like breaking out in a song....
I already have the gold star, for serving truth and its facts...
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