So...somehow I missed the big moment. This happens whenever I take a few days off from the despair of world events to try and get into the holiday spirit.
Of course, this leaves no room for justice or an ongoing trial over the thousands murdered under his reign- the Kurd's suffering will probably get swept out of the public's eye in particular.
quote:Another guard spoke about anger and sadness in Sunni parts of Baghdad where Hussein, who was Sunni, was mourned. He said mock funerals were held in the staunchly Sunni Arab district of Ameriyah with people parading an empty coffin draped with an Iraqi flag. Black funeral banners were put up on the walls calling Saddam a "hero and a martyr," he said.
Seems some people still refuse to see reality...
Un-fucking-real, still...I'm suprised it happened so quickly after he was captured. If he's gone before the World Court, it'd be years more before a trial would even start.
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Yup, I'm kind of suprised no one commented on this before. So, is the world a better place yet?
Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
What ever happened to Osama bin Laden, I guess he was just the flavor of the week.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Who is that anyway? I seem to recall something... Wasn't he Saddam's vice-president or something?
A small fry- probably not worth capturing, surely.
Posted by Lee (Member # 393) on :
Amazing. Along with all the other fuck-ups in this war, they managed to get rid of Sasddam Hussein in a way that left people feeling sorry for him!
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
What amazed me is that he was executed within hours of the US turning him over to the Iraqis. No waiting on death row for a decade for him!
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon:
quote:He said mock funerals were held in the staunchly Sunni Arab district of Ameriyah...
Ameriyah... sounds like America.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by B.J.: What amazed me is that he was executed within hours of the US turning him over to the Iraqis. No waiting on death row for a decade for him!
There was some real friction when the US did not turn him over to (whoever was in power that week) when Saddam was first captured. Iraq was afraid the US would take him back to stand trail/sentence in the states and the US was afraid the locals would either free him or tear him apart.
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
quote:Originally posted by AndrewR:
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon:
quote:He said mock funerals were held in the staunchly Sunni Arab district of Ameriyah...
Ameriyah... sounds like America.
I read it as Aaliyah at first and went "They named a what after who?"
Posted by Saltah'na (Member # 33) on :
As much as I agree that Saddam has done a lot of harm in his crimes, for some reason, the trials, sentencing, and execution have left a bad taste in my mouth.
I've had this discussion about this with several of my co-workers, despite the fact that they are glad that Saddam is gone and deserves to be punished for his crims, the consensus is that the whole process was flawed, giving the impression that the Iraqi court was being pressured by the US to push for conviction and execution. Some say that he did not get a fair trial that benefits most people in the North America. The whole process was nothing more than a circus to give them impression that "something is being done" when in fact, nothing has really been accomplished.
The fact that Saddam's execution was recorded on a cellphone didn't help matters either.
Posted by The Ginger Beacon (Member # 1585) on :
Did you see Bush's whinge about the execution? I'll summerise:
"I wanted to kill him! And we'd have done a better job, and done it more humanley, and filmed it on our videophones, which have better resolution and sound capture. It's not fair."
But seriously, when people are feeling sorry for Saddam, somethings gone wrong. Was the execution rushed? Yes. Should it have been halted and postponed after it was realised that there were gloaters with cameraphones (why weren't they searched, as if we can't guess)? Yes.
All in all it seems a bit of a bungle, which is going to have zero effect on the terrorism and sectarianism. The only real answer is for the US government not stick their oar in where it is not wanted or needed (i.e. the Middle East as a whole). Rant over. I'm going to have some frosties.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
If someone didn't record it on a camera phone - then it would have just created another 'urban legend' that he was still alive somewhere.
Posted by Johnny (Member # 878) on :
I actually agreed with Bush for the first time ever. His comments about the execution being undignified, but stressing that Saddam lorded over far worse deaths was a balanced assessment.
I don't agree with the death penalty, though in this case I can see how something good could have come out of Saddam's death, and if anyone deserved it he did. It's amazing that they managed to fuck it up so much though. It should have helped wipe the slate clean, but instead it's made things worse.
The camera phone vid wouldn't have been so much of a problem if the sound was cut out like in the official one. It's the taunts and berating as he's about to die that make it so bad.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
quote:Originally posted by AndrewR: If someone didn't record it on a camera phone - then it would have just created another 'urban legend' that he was still alive somewhere.
"THEY SAVED SADDAM'S BRAIN!!!" the 'ol "brain in a jar" gag, but Saddam's would be in a Skud missile.
Posted by HopefulNebula (Member # 1933) on :
Nononono. Jar on my desk. *evil grin*
Posted by Vanguard (Member # 1780) on :
The people who are feeling sorry for Saddam are doing it for two reasons:
1) Saddam was the enemy of the US, so he was 'obviously' the good guy... in their view.
2) Saddam was only killing Jews and Kurds, or 'people not worth caring about'... in their view.
Posted by Daniel Butler (Member # 1689) on :
My two cents...yeah the man deserved to die, but now he won't get tried for other war crimes, so THOSE families don't have closure...plus, he was still a human being, there wasn't any need to interrupt his final prayers, mock him, kick him, and hang him without letting him prepare himself. Seriously, what ever happened to not lowering yourself to your enemy's level...
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Er...they did not "interrupt his final prayers" with tghe mocking- all of that took place as he was being led to the knoose.
Whatever the circumstances, Saddam was a monster that (for the record) killed far more of his own (muslim) people than anything else while maintaning power.
Note that no one really cared when the corpses of his two sadist fucko sons were shown to the world: everyone agreed the should be put down like rabid dogs.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"...killed far more of his own (muslim) people..."
You must subscribe to the Trent Lott "they all look the same to me" school of understanding.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Not at all- consider all the young men he sent to die in the ill-concieved wars alone, not to mention the mass graves outside of the prisons full of former political enemies.
So many Iraqi men died during the various conflicts that many Iraqi women fear they will never marry or can not afford to be choosy (according to an NPR report by several Iraqi women, anyway). He managed to almost depopulate a whole generation of young men.
I dont think even the adamant Saddam supporter could claim Vanguard's assertiuon that "Saddam was only killing Jews and Kurds".
Hell of a lot of muslim Kuwaiti's died during Iraq's invasion of that country while the world issued ultimatums as well.
Posted by B.J. (Member # 858) on :
So, should we get the Iraqi women together with the Chinese men? Posted by Chris (Member # 71) on :
Great idea!!
Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
Apparently the Saddam hanging has caused a numbre of copycat hangings throughout the world. Younger kids who saw the video are hanging themselves. Plus the fact that Saddam's half brother was decapitated during his execution.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
"I dont think even the adamant Saddam supporter could claim Vanguard's assertiuon that 'Saddam was only killing Jews and Kurds'."
Well, I don't think Vanguard was making that assertion. I think he was accusing others of making that assertion.
But my point was more in reference to the idea that SH was killing "his own people", meaning Muslims. When, of course, he only would have seen Sunnis as "his own people".
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Ah....now I see your point. Strangely enough, Saddam still had supporters in the Shiate(sp?) areas where the trains ran on time and the power usually stayed on.
But people are shallow and base when their creature comforts are threatened- many would prefer a dictatorship that mostly oppressed "someone else" if it meant stability or even a more orderly life in fear than the current situation.
That bit with Saddam's half brother being decapitated "as an act of God" is pretty crass- as though he was somehow worse than Saddam himself and deserving of a more gruesome death. My guess is that they hung him with piano wire (or something simmular). After all, the locals have seen many a hanging, but never a decapitation via knoose. Posted by Da_bang80 (Member # 528) on :
The reason his head came off was because they gave him too much rope. He dropped like 8 feet, when only 5 would have been sufficient to kill him instantly. At least that's what the frizzy white haired dude on CNN said.
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)