Saddam may escape noose in deal to halt insurgency

News Telegraph UK ^ | April 11, 2005 | Adrian Blomfield in Baghdad

[jmc1969]

Oddly enough I am not against them doing this, because I am sure that if the Sunni insurgents stop for even a couple months the foreign fighters will be done, and the government can always go back on their word a year or two from now, but by then the Iraq Army will be strong enough to protect the country and most US forces will be gone.

[peyton randolph]

I'm less forgiving. A severed body part of Saddam is displayed on Iraqi TV for each terrorist attack.

[livius]

If they leave him alive, he's going to get back into power.

[BullDog108]

Consider the source of this article.

Bravo Sierra

[hoagy62]

*muttering* I don't (expletive deleted) believe this....

[mainepatsfan]

They'd be nuts not to hang him.

[tet68]

Bad move, you must kill the king.
This will be the downfall of any chance of democracy.
He should have swung by now.

[sharktrager]

If you read the history of what happens in these situations, leaders left alive end up back in charge, and their presence as a potential leader is always a rallying point.

The only exceptions are those cases where the leader is exiled to a friendly, non-bordering, nation, with huge amounts of stolen money.

[David1]

I do not believe this for one moment. The kurds and shias want Saddam's head, period.

[Graybeard58]

I agree with your reply #1 but we are going to be in the minority here.

[metalcor]

If the insuregents are holding out for a living Saddam, there is an easy way to take that incentive off the table and it doesn't involve a reprieve.

[Fast1]

He needs to be dead they made a huge mistake not shooting him on the spot .

[jmc1969]

Of course they want his head, but would being willing to put off killing him for a year or two be worth it if they could end a good part of the insurgency?

[ml1954]

Somehow I don't think the Kurds or the relatives of the hundreds of thousands of Shiites he murdered are going to go along with this deal.

Give him a fair quick trial and then hang/shoot him the next day and be done with it. The sooner the better.

Then what will the so called insurgents claim they are fighting for?

They know they've made a bid mistake starting the 'insurgency'. They are loosing and now the their leaders are worried about saving their own skins. Eventually, one way or another, the rest of the Iraqis will find them and kill them, if we don't do it first.

[jmc1969]

Yah, my view is if having Saddam alive one more year can save American and Iraqi lives then so be it, it is not like life is any fun for him right now.

Delaying Saddam's date with the devil isn't a big price to pay and it will be worth it. Life is a mini-version of hell for Saddam right now anyway.

[LibKill]

OFF with his head!

[Graybeard58]

Give him a fair quick trial

It's already too late for the quick part.

[vbmoneyspender]

you don't make deals with respect to someone in custody who is responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands. Besides that, how does anyone in the Iraqi gov't have the right to 'cut a deal' with respect to Hussein's crimes and punishment. If the rule of law is to mean anything in Iraq, it must be applied to Hussein in exactly the same way it would be applied to any other murdering terrorist who is caught, tried and hanged.

[jmc1969]

You have that right it already has been a year since we last saw him in court.

[Tax Government]

How about letting him volunteer for a lobotomy, in exchange for a life sentence?