SADDAM HANGS (Mark Steyn)

Steynonline ^ | 12/30/06 | Mark Steyn

[basil]

to read later

[Chode]

two hits... outstanding!!! didn't think i'd even get one.

this toilet earth is my favorite.

[Tees Mom]

Wow, "History takes time, you are spot on..I, like you, believe that our enemies are just waiting for Pres Bush to exit office, they are waiting for the "talkers" to take office, George W has convictions, history will judge him as such, as my really good friend said to me "Nine eleven ossified GW and nothing else on his plate matters.

[Rummyfan]

When the Western world’s Ajlouni Left reprimand the Americans for sticking Saddam on TV with a tongue depressor, they’re worried it will make the Arabs feel humiliated.

“I feel extremely humiliated,” agreed the Egyptian writer Sayyid Nassar.

GOOD!!!!

[Rummyfan]

PRESIDENT BUSH GETS A LOT OF criticism for his handling of Iraq and the larger war on terror. Much of it is deserved.

My criticism would be that we have not been harsh enough. Fallujah should have been wiped off the map, and al Sadr should have been dead two years ago.

Other than that...

Way to go President Bush and our magnificent armed forces!

[Rummyfan]

And CNN kissd his butt to keep their Baghdad bureau open while he was in power. Nothing but a bunch of propogandists!

[300winmag]

In his first interrogation at Baghdad Airport, he was asked if he’d like a glass of water, and replied: “If I drink water I will have to urinate and how can I urinate when my people are in bondage?” If there’s a statue left of him in Iraq, they should chisel that on the plinth.

ROFLOL!!!! I suggest they make a Saddam Hussein bobblehead with that on the base. Then give them away by the millions to Iraqis and airdrop them all over the islamic world.

[wideawake]

(1) Of course, as soon as there is a major terror attack after Bush leaves office, it will be blamed on Bush.

Not like some rightly give Clinton his culpability regarding 9/11 - because Clinton was obviously soft as a marshmallow on terror, even granting presidential pardons to terrorists.

No, they will blame Bush for any new attack because he was too hard on terror - that he really made the terrorists too angry and went too far with the whole anti-terror thing.

(2) Am I wrong, or is this the first time in history that a genocidal dictator has been deposed, arrested, given due process, convicted in a duly constituted court of law and executed according to legal protocol?

Lenin and Stalin both died of natural causes or were murdered (depending on which account you trust), Kun was killed in a gulag, Mao and Ho Chi Minh and Cromwell died of natural causes, Hitler, Allende and Pol Pot offed themselves, Ceausescu and Robespierre and Mussolini were summarily executed without trial, but I can't think of a single case where a dictator was actually brought to justice according to the norms of international law.

That in itself is a singular achievement in modern history.

[HighlyOpinionated]

That in itself is a singular achievement in modern history.

Democracy in action in Iraq. And the Libs and Dhimmicrats said it couldn't be done.

Now, if we can just get them to reciprocate in the area of freedom of religion.

[Valin]

Lenin and Stalin both died of natural causes or were murdered (depending on which account you trust), Kun was killed in a gulag, Mao and Ho Chi Minh and Cromwell died of natural causes, Hitler, Allende and Pol Pot offed themselves, Ceausescu and Robespierre and Mussolini were summarily executed without trial, but I can't think of a single case where a dictator was actually brought to justice according to the norms of international law.

That in itself is a singular achievement in modern history.

It is, isn't it.

I had to look up Kun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_Kun
Béla Kun
(snip)
Béla Kun was accused of Trotskyism and killed in the late 1930s, during Joseph Stalin's purge of the Communist old guard. This charge was utterly unjustified, as Kun was by this time a fanatical Stalinist, who, until his arrest in May 1937, strongly supported Stalin's actions.

[Watery Tart]

He has gone on to meet his authentic Lebanese reward:

[Borges]

How about Tojo?

[alwaysconservative]

Thanks for the Steyn pings (plural)!

[wideawake]

How about Tojo?

He was tried, convicted and executed by an international tribunal.

But his is a weird case, isn't it?

After all, he never seized power or held power - he was appointed prime minister by the Emperor (under a constitution very different from the UK's - the PM was very much the Emperor's servant in imperial Japan) and was actually living as a retired private citizen in disgrace when he was arrested.

The Emperor had fired him for incompetence in prosecuting the war effort. Not for the war crimes he had committed.

The Emperor was constitutionally and morally responsible for everything Tojo did in his name - the Emperor could have intervened and fired Tojo at any moment. Tojo was a fall guy who served as a scapegoat for the Emperor so the Emperor could be rehabilitated and allowed to remain on the throne in the New Japan by transferring all the blame for his regime's crimes onto his war ministers and generals.

Tojo richly deserved his fate - but Hirohito got away with genocide.

[Borges]

Apparently Truman wanted Hirohito tried for War Crimes but Macarthur objected feeling that the Emperor was a symbol of Japanese cohesion and unity and would help with rebuilding Japanese morale after the war.

[Dr.Deth]

" Pres Bush told us in his address right after 911 that there will be actions that will not be known for many years, and there will be other things that will never be known. This could be one of the "things" that would never be known.

Of course, it still doesn't keep some of us from "speculating" and hoping that's true."

There's nothing I can tell you that's first-hand knowledge, but I've heard some stories about other low-tech, high-concept terror plots like 9/11 that have been thwarted. Wouldn't want to give the terrorists any ideas by spelling them out, but they sound extremely plausible. I'm quite sure that history will judge Bush a lot differently than, say, that boob Dan Rather thinks, on his new High Def Pravda show.