Should Iraq Hang Saddam Hussein?

Israel News Agency ^ | December 30, 2006 | Joel Leyden

[17th Miss Regt]

Me, I wouldn't give him a firing squad, I'd walk in his cell and put a bullet in his head, Mafia style.

That entails the expense of a bullet. In slaughterhouses they use a device that sends a 'slug' into the brain of the animal, but is then easily retrievable for serial use. Since there are several to be executed (Izzat, Barzan...), this may make economic sense.

[Rummyfan]

The debate is smoot now!

[Rummyfan]

Moot I mean!

[anymouse]

News reader: "This just in, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has just stayed Saddam's execution."

Voice in ear piece: "Psssst, he was just hanged at dawn in Baghdad."

News reader: "Now for our next story, Islamic leaders in Somalia demand the United Nations stop Ethiopian troops stop kicking their a$$." :)

[Orange1998]

I will not dance on Saddam grave, in doing so will make us no better than him. Hanging a President of a country who lost the war is a path of no return. I think most Americans have no ideal what we have just done. Life behind a low budget prison cell would have actually helped our cause. Our job was "mission accomplished" with Saddam out of power and in prison.

[RunningWolf]

//Hanging a President of a country who lost the war is a path of no return// Correct

//I think most Americans have no idea what we have just done// Correct again

Yes it is to easy to get on the rah rah dance on the execution of Saddam bandwagon.

And this is not to forgive or minimize Saddam. However it was a matter of degree and that is how they do business over there, only he did more of it right away. And as bad as he was, his crimes were not to the level to warrant war crimes tribunals against the leader of a nation. That is the part I am worried about as to the long term implications.

[IsraelBeach]

If Saddam murdered civilians in 1982, then why is Donald Rumsfeld, representing President Reagan, shaking hands with Saddam in 1983?

Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82

The Reagan administration and its special Middle East envoy, Donald Rumsfeld, did little to stop Iraq developing weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s, even though they knew Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons "almost daily" against Iran, it was reported yesterday.

US support for Baghdad during the Iran-Iraq war as a bulwark against Shi'ite militancy has been well known for some time, but using declassified government documents, the Washington Post provided details in 2002 about Mr Rumsfeld's role, and about the extent of the Reagan administration's knowledge of the use of chemical weapons.

Furthermore, in 1988, the Dow Chemical company sold $1.5m-worth (£930,000) of pesticides to Iraq despite suspicions they would be used for chemical warfare.

Hyprocrisy at its best?
You decide ...

[RunningWolf]

US foreign policy has been pragmatic at times which may appear fickle.


Who to blame? the electorate IMO

[the808bass]

And as bad as he was, his crimes were not to the level to warrant war crimes tribunals against the leader of a nation. /

Could you delineate for us commoners what level of crime a murderous despot must reach to warrant war crimes tribunals? Are we talking a number of people killed? Or over X types of torture used on Y people? Or Z people killed + A times WMDs used >= B? What sort of formula are we working with?

[EQAndyBuzz]

"Should Iraq Hang Saddam Hussein?"

They would never hang Saddam. /sarcasm off

[RunningWolf]

Well this commoner would guess that is a very good and maybe unanswerable question, and perhaps the conquering forces will always have a large say in what the formula is. Although in some cases it is so egregious it is as plain as pornography. I think the Nazi crimes for instance.

I think it was Chuck Yeager in his auto biography who said something like atrocities are committed in all wars, and he hoped he was always on the winning side.

Wolf