From CNN:
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been executed, a witness said.
“Saddam’s body is in front me,” said an official in the prime minister’s office when CNN telephoned. “It’s over.”
At least we’ve got this to look forward to:
The execution was videotaped and photographed, state television reported, and those images will be distributed to the media.
UPDATE (1/1/07): Our friend Peter Porcupine has posted video at his blog that apparently shows the actual hanging. I have not watched it, nor do I intend to. For those who wish to see it, it’s readily available.
Please share widely!
… So Bush finally got the guy who tried to kill his daddy. Big deal. I wonder what the Mighty Righties are going to start beating their breasts about now.
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All this was at the cost of almost 3K American lives and tens of thousands of injured Americans–to date, of course. And not to be forgotten–although more than a few Americans would prefer to do–at the cost of hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis, of course.
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One would have thought that, to give Saddam’s execution the maximal impact on the American psyche, the Bushies would have had him executed either before Christmas or after New Years, not between Christmas and New Years when few Americans are paying attention to much of anything. It appears that the Bushies have lost all appreciation for the wonders of public relations.
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Such a civilized thing to do.
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I hope Bush thinks 3000 American lives and untold numbers of Iraqi civilian lives was worth satisfying his Oedipal urge to show up Daddy.
…my belief that the death penalty is unequivocally wrong because I can’t even permit myself to believe for even a moment that a butcher like Hussein deserved to be put to death. Even for him it seems barbaric to me. At the least we’re witnessing yet another example of the exercise of bad human impulse put into action. At the worst we’ve just helped create a martyr who will be used as an excuse fuel violence that will make the last several years seem like a cake walk.
I don’t care about Saddam, but from an international viewpoint, and particularly from an Arab one, this just looks like American will to do whatever we want. When the French tried to arrest Kissinger, we smuggled him out of the country, but another national leader that is not on our side is not only executed, but without anything even sort of resembling a fair trial or an appeal. Why couldn’t we have just sent him to the World Court where they could have come to the same conclusion with a bit more time and a bit less direct US involvement?
The U.S. has no political plan for winning over Sunni support for a democratic (hence Shiite-dominated) Iraqi government. Sunni support for the insurgency has surged. As a result, a solely military solution to this political problem looks increasingly murderous if not genocidal. Killing Sunnis increases Sunni distrust which swells the insurgency which causes more attacks on civilians and occupation forces which causes more Sunnis to be killed, etc. ad infinitum. Eventually, we kill all the Sunnis. Is that what Bush means by victory?
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Getting the politics right in Iraq is crucially important. So the fact that Saddam’s hanging is treated like some sort of celebratory event with pictures (or, shudder, mugs and commerative tee shirts) is bad news. It’s only good news for the brainless chest-beaters who think we can whup our way to some yet-to-be-defined victory in Iraq.
Here we have a perfect example of this link.
http://www.scl.cc/ho…
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The “news” is that we hung a guy in the green zone. Period. Now watch even five minutes of any American channel. They are telling you how you should think, feel even what your emotions should be over this.
The “Butcher of Baghdad”, so they say.
http://www.ft.com/cm…
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http://www.dailykos….
Here is another one which puts a date on Saddam’s CIA recruitment!
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http://www.dailykos….
Yes, more and more people are not buying it. My wife and I seriously think the real Saddam is sipping margharitas on a tropical island with his own secret service guards, part of the CIA asset relocation program.
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More than this though the trial itself had all the trappings of an OJ Simpson affair.
It was not conducted under an International scope, it was not at The Hague. I can only wonder if popular word of all things Illuminati is becoming prevalent enough for them to scroll back and take a new position, hide from the specter of globalization themes.
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Reports last night were coming in about two things.
One was the report of Saddam’s imminent death.
The other was a tornado warning for Crawford Texas, and yes, he was there.
It might have been a two for one.
ever single comment is negative! Not a single good thing to say about this, wow!
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(Some factual errors too btw- not that it matters but it didnt happen in the green zone, and its hard to imagine that the US set the date for the execution)
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Maybe you guys should have a candlelight vigil for Saddam?
We didn’t try Saddam Hussein, the Iraqis did.
And we didn’t hang Saddam Hussein, the Iraqis did.
This was their call, and they made the right one.