Judge Who Sentenced Saddam Hussein To Death Has Been Executed By ISIS, Local Media Reports

zero hedge ^ | 6/22/14 | tylker durden

[Nachum]

Back in 2006, after the second US invasion of Iraq culminated if not with the discovery of the WMDs (which were the pretext for the invasion in the first place), but the unearthing (literally) and kangaroo court trial of Saddam Hussein, the US was quick to announce "mission accomplished." Recent events have made a mockery of that claim, however what is truly the straw that broke the back of poetic justice, to mix metaphors, are reports from local media that as part of its blitz-campaign to take over northern Iraq, ISIS found and the promptly executed Rauf Rashid Abd al-Rahman, the judge who sentenced Saddam to death: a death which to many was the crowning moment of the second US invasion of Iraq, and the confirmation of successful US foreign policy.

It goes without saying that if true, the murder of the man who indirectly did the US bidding in slamming the book shut on the Saddam regime (and with it US claims of Iraqi "liberation") and was responsible for Saddam's death, means the last "Mission Accomplished" posted can now be safely taken down.

[justa-hairyape]

You are arguing with statists. There is no crime a countries leader can commit that would be worse then what a rag tag bunch of uncontrolled terrorist can do, according to them. They have no moral equivalency standard. They are happy that Saddam tortured people because he was the state. All hail the state. Also, their statist egos blind them to morality.

[Fantasywriter]

There’s a lot of truth to what you’re saying...but. Do you recall how gung ho liberals were for military action against Bashir in Syria? I remember them salivating once he crossed Obama’s ‘red line’ & gassed his own people. [Or so I understand, though I also have read comments indicating that it wasn’t Assad who did that. I’m afraid I haven’t followed it as closely as some.]

Anyway, all of a sudden the Left got hot & bothered about a dictator torturing & killing his own people. Usually they act as if—just as you said—they *like* that kind of thing. But in Bashir’s case they wanted Obama to be Mr. Tough Guy & give Bashir a good thumping.

So what do you make of that? Was it the fact that they thought Obama was serious about the ‘red line’, & they figured they’d better play up the torture, suffering & death to give O cover for military action? Or if not, what was going on? There was undisguised dismay on the Left, of all places, when Obama weaseled out of his threat & tossed the ball into Putin’s court. Obama really let down the side on that one. What’s your take?

[Nowhere Man]

Let’s be brutally honest here. The dirty little secret that nobody wants to talk about is that Saddam Hussein was far more effective at dealing with radical Muslims in Iraq than were the @ssholes in the U.S. government who invaded Iraq and toppled his government in 2003.

I do agree there, I think it was a mistake to take out Saddam Hussein and his sons (if Saddam did pass on while leader of Iraq between 2003 and now, most likely they be in charge) because they did keep a lid on the radicals. I would not want to live under them but it is a different world over there and it takes a strongman to keep a lid on things. Democracy over there means voting for the head thug who would organize other thugs to beat up on the people you do not like. I keep thinking of the old 1983 "Men At Work" song, "It's a Mistake." The worse mistake is withdrawing since we did go in, sure I think we need to leave at some point but we telegraphed our plans as when to leave and since we did "break" things over there and leave a vacuum, we should have stayed there to keep a lid on it. Still, again, to bring 1983 into the mess, the old line from "War Games" on Iraq, "the only winning move is not to play."

[Fantasywriter]

“I would not want to live under them but it is a different world over there and it takes a strongman to keep a lid on things.”

True. As long as it’s only Iraqis—men, women, children & babies—Saddam is killing & torturing to death, good enough. Of course, it wouldn’t be right if ***American*** women were being systematically raped & their children tortured to death. But it’s a different world over there. Genocide is okay as long as a “strongman” is in charge of it. Besides, Iraqis & Kurds aren’t really ‘human’ in the same way as Americans. They don’t mind much, if at all, when their babies are tortured or gassed to death. We couldn’t let that happen to *American* babies, needless to say, but Iraqi/Kurd babies...meh. Let them suffer; let them die. It’s a different world over there, after all.

[Jedidah]

You’re so proud of your profanity that you feel the need to keep posting it?

You conveniently ignore the fact that Saddam himself was a muslim and a supporter, ideologically and financially, of terror.

We just stomped the beast for a few years, but the injuries were not fatal.

[varon]

What facts?

Really? Really? If you're not familiar with history, then with all due respect, I decline to engage in a discussion unless you are at least somewhat familiar with the topic.

[Fantasywriter]

I guess I should add a sarc tag so I don’t get banned. To be clear, I didn’t mean one word of the above post. I’m just sick to death of the idea that as long as it’s only Iraqis & Kurds who had to live—& die—under Saddam’s sadistic reign of terror, it’s okay. If Americans are not being raped, tortured, gassed & mass-murdered, then let Saddam & the boys have their fun. Makes me ill.

Have none of these smug people ever seen a single photo of Saddam’s atrocities? Whole villages of dead Kurds, many who died with their babies in their arms, trying to shield them. How do people live such sheltered lives that such documented scenes of horror never penetrate? Being gassed to death is a horrible way to go. Of course, it wasn’t just Kurds that he killed. It’s estimated that, independent of the Iran-Iraq war, Saddam killed ~a million of his own people. He maimed & tortured many more. How on earth can people say, ‘as long as it wasn’t happening to me, it’s fine’?

Some things I will never understand.

[doug from upland]

Just for fun, here is the sing-along: HANGING SADDAM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni-Ldr7T0E4

And now the movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkLvJznATmc

(Liberty Film Festival) MOVIE REVIEW - WMD: THE MURDEROUS REIGN OF SADDAM HUSSEIN
Doug from Upland, FreeRepublic | 10-7-04 | Doug from Upland
Posted on 10/7/2004 8:18:26 PM by doug from upland

Edited on 10/8/2004 8:50:06 AM by Admin Moderator. [history]
MOVIE REVIEW

WMD: THE MURDEROUS REIGN OF SADDAM HUSSEIN

Brad Maaske/Jano Rosebiani

Perhaps the most powerful and emotional film at the recent Liberty Film Festival in West Hollywood, California was WMD: THE MURDEROUS REIGN OF SADDAM HUSSEIN.

Filmmakers Brad Maaske and Kurdish/American Jano Rosebiani have provided the world with long overdue heart-wrenching visual evidence that millions of human beings were living a literal hell on earth. How ironic. Hell in the Cradle of Civilization.

Men, women, and children were beaten, tortured, gassed, imprisoned, and murdered in unspeakable ways. Tens of thousands simply disappeared and were never seen by their families again. Those who survived live with incomprehensible physical and/or mental anguish.

The death of innocents may total as high 1.3 million. While the United Nations supervised the notorious “Oil for Food” program, criminals and thugs made millions of dollars. As many as 3 million children died because of lack of food, medicine, and medical care. The world did not do that. The United States did not do that. Saddam Hussein did that. He kept perhaps $10 billion dollars for himself while letting the children die.

Rosebiani provided footage from Iraq possessed by no other filmmaker in the world. The voiceovers were not even necessary. We could look into people’s eyes and souls and feel what they were saying.

Let the sanctions work? Let the sanctions work? Are you kidding? No one who watches this film will again tolerate those who tell them that the sanctions were working. Sorry, that is ludicrous and disgusting.

God bless America and its allies. They are not the coerced or bribed as a particular disingenuous presidential candidate calls them. God bless those dedicated brave men and women who continue to confront evil in Iraq. Bribed and coerced? Not on your life. They are heroes.

There are no finer heroes in the world than the Americans who volunteered, left comfort at home, and risk their lives everyday so that others may enjoy the freedom that too many of us take for granted. They are in both military gear and civilian clothing.

After 12 years and 17 resolutions, Hussein was still playing games with the world. Victor Davis Hanson provided remarkable insight about the United Nations and why it is incapable of solving any of the world’s problems. Their goal appears to be little more than trying to attack, embarrass, and humiliate the United States. China is on the Security Council. Syria and Libya are on particular human rights committees. There is something very wrong with that picture.

Operation Iraqi Freedom indeed shocked and awed the world. In less than three weeks, Baghdad was taken. It was the greatest modern military marvel.

WMD contains a great deal of powerful footage from September 11, 2001. Only a short three years later, far too many Americans seem to have forgotten. They seem not to realize that we are in a world war that will likely continue for a very long time. It is almost painful to watch some of the man on the street interviews in which those who loathe our president are staggeringly ignorant of history and world affairs. For those who refer to our president as a Nazi, I ask you, what word is left for Hitler? What word do you use for the real Nazis?

If anyone did not shed a tear at the end of the film when the story of a soldier named Daniel Unger was told, they are without feelings. Unger was from Maaske’s hometown of Exeter, California. His heroic actions saved Iraqi lives but cost him his own. Unger’s parents are devastated but spoke on camera and exhibited a rare courage and pride for what their son had done. Knowing their son, they would have been shocked if he had been anything other than a hero.

WMD: THE MURDEROUS REIGN OF SADDAM HUSSEIN must be seen by those who question why we went to war in Iraq. It might not change the minds of the most rabid Bush haters who are filled with hate because of their political agenda, but it will change the hearts and minds of those who have hearts and minds.

[APatientMan]

Really? We can’t judge societies this way? Why’s that?

[Fantasywriter]

Thank you, doug from upland.

Thank you.

[Delta Dawn]

It is not the US govt. of 2003 that has allowed ISIS to run rampant through IRAQ in 2014.

Nice try.

[Delta Dawn]

That plus the fact that he was the greatest mass murderer of modern times, only surpassed by Idi Amin...

[Nowhere Man]

Man, tbat’s a knee jerk, emotional reaction. The reality is we cannot save the world plus there is no anchor of Western values over there to build on, the only thing they know is force. We have been trying for years to teach them our way but it hasn’t worked, it is up to them to want to change and except for a few, they don’t.

[Fantasywriter]

In your world, evidently, the Golden Rule is a knee-jerk emotional concept. Best, obviously, not to give a flying flapjack what happens to anybody else; just look out for Number One.

[Fantasywriter]

“The reality is we cannot save the world plus there is no anchor of Western values over there to build on, the only thing they know is force. We have been trying for years to teach them our way but it hasn’t worked, it is up to them to want to change and except for a few, they don’t.”

None of which has anything even remotely to do with liberating them from the sadistic reign of torture, mutilation, rape & genocide inflicted on the country by Saddam. The Kurds—whom Saddam attempted to eradicate (with some success)—& the Iraqis lived in terror of this sick, mass murdering monster. The mere fact of his removal & subsequent death freed the entire country from the homicidal, sadistic terrors he imposed.

In your world, you’d prefer to have men, women & children continue to live indefinitely in a state of constant fear, routinely tortured, mutilated, raped & murdered on a whim?

[SgtHooper]

Yes, really! You assumed into the discussion facts that you did not provide. I was simply asking what they are. FantasyWriter and others on this thread have provided data that Saddam suppressed radical Islam only because HE WAS the radical in charge. But at an enormous cost of lives the people of Iraq, and others. So again, what are your countering facts/data!?

[justa-hairyape]

Saw no response from the real left wanting Assad taken down. You are talking about the person who Nancy Pelosi visited on her own. Shook his hand and all. The DINO left or oligarchy leftists may have wanted Assad taken down, just to support the oligarchy. But in the end, Obama backed away from air strikes on Assad. He was hamstrung by the real left into just using covert actions funding rebels. Bombing Assad is a dangerous game with all his WMD facilities. Just look at what all those WMD’s we bombed in Iraq did. Ooops. The CIA tried to cover all that up now, didn’t they. No WMD in Iraq was the false claim used to cover up the devastation our bombing of WMD sites had done in Iraq. And the foolish left fell for it, along with the BDS right.

[varon]

So again, what are your countering facts/data!?

You answered your own question. Case closed!

[Fantasywriter]

Are you arguing that Saddam should have been left in control of Iraq?

[SgtHooper]

Nice air ball!