Whether you're pro- or anti-death penalty, you have to admit that George Bush saying he'd like to see Saddam paying the "ultimate penalty" is going to ruffle some feathers.
I am personally against the death penalty, but I wouldn't have wasted any tears had Saddam been killed while resisting arrest. I was glad to see that Saddam had not gone down guns blazing; for a while at least the Islamists were denied a martyr figure.
I'll be interested to see how this develops. Just last night on the BBC I was watching Jeremy Paxman interview two Muslim women activists, one in the UK and one in the US. Both of them expressed something that wouldn't have occurred to me: the Arab world (they couldn't speak for the rest of the Islamic world) was reacting with anger to the undignified way that Saddam was put on display after his arrest, viewing it as an American affront to "uppity Arabs", reminding them that even their leaders could be humiliated by the Americans at any time or place. Personally that was a new slant for me; I thought showing Saddam in such circumstances was a good way to stick a pin in any bubble of myth that was growing around Saddam amongst the Iraqi resistance - Your Mythic Leader in Absentia is now the latest perp on the Baghdad edition of COPS.
Would it be better for Saddam to rot in jail till the end of time? Or would it be better to let the Iraqi people have their revenge? Now that Dubya has weighed in with his preference and said that he'd be happy to see Saddam dead (not exactly a new idea, to be sure) can there be any doubt that any Iraqi-led trial and judgment resulting in Saddam's presumably public beheading / hanging / whatever would be seen as a thinly disguised long arm of American retribution? Will that, in the end, make him a martyr?
This really baffles me…
What kind of convoluted thinking would now assume that the US would treat other Arab leaders the way this dog Saddam is being treated? From where does that thinking evolve?
With that mindset – one must believe that these same people think Saddam was actually a leader? WHAT? He wasn’t a leader – he was a murdering, raping thug!
The imagery of Saddam (who self proclaimed himself ‘The Lion of Baghdad’) cowering in a hole like the rat that he is – being sustained on Mars bars while sucking on a 7-up – is PRICELESS!
Not having the ‘cojones’ to meet up with his 70 virgins – is the much more clearer message that was sent to Arabs all over the world! Now this is the one message that came across loud and clear. Hopefully the next young (easily manipulated) Arab will have second thoughts when strapping a bomb around his or her waist!
I say after the trial, which will expose his many evils against humanity in living color – we hand him over to the folks in Iraq and let them do a ‘Mussolini’ on him!
More and more of the Arab world are starting to get it. What our President started and is accomplishing will change the mentality of many and have all realize that freedom is the best for everyone.
One step at a time…
Posted by: Del | December 17, 2003 at 04:50 PM
A bite size Mars bar - 50 cents
A can of 7-UP - $1
Saddam crawling out of a hole looking like 'Bad Santa' during the holidays...
PRICELSS!!!
Posted by: Del | December 17, 2003 at 04:58 PM
I say he should not be treated any worse than those he put in a wood chipper - literally.
Posted by: Jim | December 17, 2003 at 08:58 PM
There an old joke that ends with the punchline... "You will be given a fair trial after which you will be shot."
Typically the words 'alleged crimes' and 'charged with' are used when discussing a defendant's impending trial. It's interesting to listen to high ranking officials discuss Sadam's guilt in the most absolute terms, then say he will have a fair trial. It's much like the joke.
Posted by: Greg | December 18, 2003 at 12:40 AM
Saddam's guilt is sealed – guilty! The reason for the trial is to expose the truth with the evidence in hand, which include films of the torture in which Saddam used to intimidate his own people. The idiot had such episodes taped.
Not even Johnnie Cochran can get him off! No 'if the glove don't fit you must acquit' bull!
Justice is a beautiful thing!
Posted by: Del | December 18, 2003 at 02:09 AM
Del is right. Most people who go to trial don't have miles of film documenting their own attrocities. He made his own bed.
Posted by: Jim | December 18, 2003 at 03:42 AM
Absolutely Del and Jim. I believe Saddam Hussein is going to discover the meaning of Muslim justice according to the Quran...
I believe the old addage "What goes around, comes around" fits very nicely with this beast.
Posted by: Chrish | December 18, 2003 at 01:53 PM
i agree that saddam shouldnt be given the death penelty. should be lokc away in cell wiht no luxuries and no one to bully or to be given the easy way out and die like a martyr for the world to see, what do you suppose would be worse for a man like saddam hussein?
Posted by: Meagan | May 12, 2004 at 05:32 AM