US wants Saddam to be tried by Iraqi people

The Times ^ | April 8, 2003 | Richard Beeston

[MadIvan]

I was just eating dinner and listening to a report on what Saddam allowed one of his generals to do the people of Basra. Firing squad might be too fast.

That's OK, the Times said yesterday that the people of Basra were attacking Saddam's people with lynch mobs, and everyone was getting a fist in. We can assume this behaviour will be repeated everywhere but Tikrit.

Regards, Ivan

[William Terrell]

Oh, I like this. I had been worried about the issue of giving credibility to that world court travesty.

[hchutch]

Great loophole?

This I gotta hear...

[68skylark]

So are you saying that the British would tolerate a death sentence from an Iraqi court on Iraqi citizens who kill British POW's, but the British themselves would not give a death sentence to an Iraqi who is guilty of that crime?

On a related note I remember reading about the early 1800's when both the U. S. Navy and the British Navy were trying to supress piracy in the West Indies. I read that U. S. officers got frustrated at how long it took to prosecute pirates in U. S. courts, so they would sometimes just drop off those they'd capture with British ships. They knew there would be a quick hanging within 24 hours or so -- and not too many formalities! Maybe in the coming days and weeks the U. S. military can sort-of return the favor to the British, if the British military cares to drop off their worst suspects with our guys.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Good.

They can use the Ceausescus' trial as an example.

[Brian Allen]

<< Are the British going to overcome their reluctance to impose the death penalty? >>

The British won't have any say in the initial military government of Iraq. That -- as will be the bringing of American Justice to Iraq's war criminals and terrorists -- will be American.

But the Brits, as they have gained weeks of experience down there, might be asked to help out the American-appointed mayor of the liberated bits of Basra.

[templar]

Ceaucescu or Mussolini style, I hope. ;)

I've forgotten the details over the years, but there was a NAZI official in one of the liberated towns after the war who was held accountable for his actions by the towns people. They hanged him. Then, as soon as he lost conciousness, the revived him. And then they hanged him again. Did this until they could revive him no more.

[BartMan1]

There was a description of just such an incident in Ambrose' Citizen Soldiers. The concentration camp survivors did this to the commandant: placed him on a table with his hands bound, put the rope around his neck and hoist it up until the tips of his toes were just barely supporting him. Leave him there until he grows tired and passes out from asphyxia, lower him to the floor, revive him, and start over.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I'd like to see the Iraqis try Saddam. That skiffy bastard would get the Mussolini treatment before sundown on Day 1 of the trial.

[Kevin Curry]

Exactly right. Exactly appropriate.

[ChemistCat]

We say we want this, and then we drop four bunker busters. That's a little schizoid.....


But I'm cool with that. ;-)