Saddam Hussein Has Been Executed
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter from Paris to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787…
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Saddam Hussein Has Been Executed“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter from Paris to William Stephens Smith, November 13, 1787… 15 comments to Saddam Hussein Has Been ExecutedLeave a Reply |
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RIGHT ON.
The tree of liberty was refreshed today!
Ding dong, Saddam is dead.
“Saddam”
“Yes, Satan”
“turn around”
“OK”
“Grab your ankles, Saddam”
“OK”
“Do you feel that, Saddam?”
“yes, Satan”
“Saddam, do you remember those 100,000 Kurds”?
“Yes, Satan”
“One, two,….”
I would normally never post on this site while under the influence of alcohol (extremely drunk after the victory of our Red Raiders, Mark!) , but this morning I make an exception. After spending one year in Iraq I say… Burn In Hell Saddam
I derive no pleasure but significant satisfaction from his death. Bye-bye Saddam. Best wishes to the Iraqi people who have now received justice.
One of his executioners exclaimed “Long live Muqtada al-Sadr!” on the gallows. Also, strictly in terms of the photo-op, the executioners bore a stunning resemblance to those men who beheaded poor Nick Berg all that time ago. The execution was carried out according to Saddam’s own execution procedure. And perhaps worst of all, as you noted in your earlier post, there was a religious concern going on here.
It’s not like people are gonna miss the guy, but if it could have been carried out by people who didn’t look like the garden-variety thugs who have been populating televisions for years now, and in a way that didn’t simply play into the hands of all the problems going on in the country today, it could have been a much better thing. As it happened, I have a hard time seeing how it will have done any good at all.
Well, Fargus, it wasn’t our decision – it was the Iraqis. Their court, their verdict, their execution.
Good riddance to bad rubbish…I get no pleasure out of a hanging, either, but I do believe justice was served…
Josh, how about those Red Raiders?…
Oh, and Fargus, I did read about the executioner praising al-Sadr on the gallows – yes, very troubling. I fear that the coalition of moderates I had hoped for may be dead in the water…our larger Iraq policy didn’t gain much from this event, you’re right. Still, this wasn’t strictly about politics – it was about the death of a tyrant…
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. Their justice system, that’s fine. I’m not making an anti-death penalty case here. All I’m saying is that watching that video and reading those accounts, it plays much more like a higher-profile incidence of sectarian violence than an official state execution.
I agree with you on this one Fargus. Why weren’t the executioners in uniform? Why were the executioners even allowed to speak? If you were to have replaced Saddam with a kidnapped foreigner or even a captured soldier I doubt that anyone would have been able to tell the difference between the state run execution and a run of the mill insurgent execution video.
Unfortunate that professionalism was lacking. Basically looked like a run of the mill whack job by a militia, instead of the Army.
Would rather have a ‘legitimate’ scenario where the executioners could have been seen to represent all three, Kurds, Shite & Sunni while remaining anonymous.
the Execution really sums up exactly how badly the Iraqis have squandered the opportunities we and the coalition have given them.
Saddam would still be in power if not for the United States. We gave them an opportunity for democracy, for freedom, and for justice. While justice was meted out in the case of Saddam the Iraqis so far have opted for a new group of strong men and tyrants, and vengence over justice.
The pain the Iraqis suffered under Saddam falls rightly on his head. they pain they suffer going forward is of their own making.
[...] The concerns expressed by Hitchens are very similar to what our good friend Fargus posted elsewhere in the comments, and the unsavory aspects are duly noted and largely agreed with. Hitchens’ concerns about the U.S. role at least acknowledge the passivity of our culpability, rather than placing the U.S. in the role of instigator in the manner of Glenn Greenwald: This depressing New York Times article by John Burns and Marc Santora details the frantic, reckless manner in which Saddam Hussein was shoved into the noose in clear violation of Iraqi law. We can’t even get a hanging right. With all of the world watching, we yet again were the primary authors of a violent, uncivilized, and primitive act which — no matter how justified in some ultimate moral sense — was carried out in the most thuggish, wretched, inept, and (we now learn) patently illegal manner. [...]