Why I expected this to be anything other than what it turned out to be is beyond me. Hope springs eternal I suppose.

Without hope, you might as well go over to the “nuke mecca” crowd. It looks bleak now, but this is an extremely fundamental change for the people of that region. It’s going to be a generational change (at the very least). That doesn’t mean we should keep silent when they revert to barbarism — we should just not equate lack of progress with utter futility (hopelessness).

And fogw, you need to read more carefully. It’s not about Saddam’s dignity as much as it is about Iraq’s dignity. You’d sacrifice the latter just to trample the former.

Honora,

I don’t believe Saddam’s “courts” afforded the Iraqi citizens any dignity in their deaths. Not very dignified to electrocute, rape, remove limbs, gas, torture, poison.

If it were a common citizen being treated this way by the new Iraqi judicial system, I might agree with you.

It wasn’t. It was a murdering dictator.

Dignity denied. TS.

fogw on January 3, 2007 at 5:31 PM

Again, it’s not about Saddam. If the goal was to demonstrate that a democratic form of government is superior to the Saddam regime, and indeed to just about every other government in the mid-east, then this was a foolish mistake.

As for Saddam’s “courts”, are we to pattern ourselves after criminals and despots? To what end? The Iraqis would do well to remember the old saw: Living well is the best revenge.

Why I expected this to be anything other than what it turned out to be is beyond me. Hope springs eternal I suppose.

His body should have been dumped in one of the many mass graves where he had people shot and dropped into. His hanging experience atm is probably not an issue to him as he’s begging for water on his tongue from the depths of hell.

Was Muqtada al-Sadr one of Saddam’s executioners? Allahpundit It seems not even the Counterterrorism Blog is safe from the panic of a slow news day. The source is a Saudi paper. Of course they’d put the head Shiite goon at…

Based on the phone video, it looked like the execution was incompetently performed. Tantor on January 3, 2007 at 6:01 PM

I wondered the same thing. Apparently the consensus is they were’nt as clueless as they seemed. I wonder if the disposition of his neck will be released. More than likely, it all worked like it was supposed to. It’s not a great leap to suppose, someone would have liked to kill him slowly.
“This is the gallows. You want torture – down the hall in the Akbar room.”

I think you missed the point she was trying to make, or at least the one that I would. It has nothing to do with Saddam. He doesn’t deserve dignity or respect and I really don’t care how he is executed; anything is probably too good for him. But the point is the Iraqi Government had the chance to prove it was different that Saddam’s Iraq; it could have shown it was a fair, modern demcracy with the rule of law and respect for human rights. Instead it showed the world it was run by lynch mobs chanting the names of murderous, little would be tyrants.

JaHerer22 on January 3, 2007 at 9:44 PM

So, you don’t give a damn how Saddam is executed, but you think the Iraqis should be more considerate. And how many of your family members were slaughtered by this tyrant?

Saddam could have been put to death 100 different ways, by 20 different sects and you libs would never be satisfied, you would just sit around whining and crying about how the death of a mass-murderer was mishandled.

Nice try coming to honora’s defense, but you failed miserably, missed my point entirely and had no valid point of your own.

. But the point is the Iraqi Government had the chance to prove it was different that Saddam’s Iraq; it could have shown it was a fair, modern demcracy with the rule of law and respect for human rights

The current Iraqi government IS DIFFERENT from Saddam’s, regardless of the events surrounding this execution. If you cannot realize that, it’s pointless trying to reason with you

The current Iraqi government IS NOT YET a “fair, modern, democracy”. The Iraqi people have only had three years to create the complex infrastructures of democracy, and to expect too much of them is either unfair, or a partisan argument trying to criticize Bush and the Repubs through the current govt there

You also missed the point, which was that a war criminal was caught, given a fair open trial, and executed. That took guts, and yes, unfortunately it was sullied

I don’t believe Saddam’s “courts” afforded the Iraqi citizens any dignity in their deaths. Not very dignified to electrocute, rape, remove limbs, gas, torture, poison.

If it were a common citizen being treated this way by the new Iraqi judicial system, I might agree with you.

It wasn’t. It was a murdering dictator.

Dignity denied. TS.

I think you missed the point she was trying to make, or at least the one that I would. It has nothing to do with Saddam. He doesn’t deserve dignity or respect and I really don’t care how he is executed; anything is probably too good for him. But the point is the Iraqi Government had the chance to prove it was different that Saddam’s Iraq; it could have shown it was a fair, modern demcracy with the rule of law and respect for human rights. Instead it showed the world it was run by lynch mobs chanting the names of murderous, little would be tyrants.

If you’re looking for a blogger to feel some pity for Saddam Hussein because his executioners were primitive and rude, you’ve come to the wrong place. Punch up the Daily Kos and you’ll find countless diarists eager to express some sympathy for th…

I’ll give you half credit on this one. Dignity and propriety? Maybe, I don’t care so much. But mocking Saddam in the name of another thug we need to destroy? That’s out of bounds for me. We didn’t liberate Iraq so that al Sadr could have it, he should be next in line for the gallows.

Any displeasure I have over the handling of the hanging is in allowing people sympathetic to al Sdar to be involved in any way. It doesn’t represent the justice the Iraqi people deserved in the carrying out of this sentence, but an inter-sectarian gotcha.

It’s well past time to militarize the border with Iran. Completely, and until the Iraqi military can be trusted to hold it themselves. They were stronger than Iran before Saddam, they can be again.

True? I’ve no idea. But the fact that the rumor is even floating about is a good indicator of the strength of the current tensions between the various factions in Iraq.

In a week or two, she & they will turn to al-Sadr, that jelly-bean-head religious fanatic and amateur murderer, as he comes under attack.

When Iran gets it turn, they will cry for Akmed-dinerjacket

I love the smell of Predictable Liberals in the morning…

( and stop stealing my line, angrychristian )

I feel pretty good about also

Kini on January 3, 2007 at 4:40 PM

I feel pretty good about the “hanging” part. I have my suspicions, though, about the clowns that hanged him. Why do I get the uneasy feeling that some of the guys that hanged him should have been swinging right along side of him?

Nah, let’s make stupid jokes about it. That’ll be more funner.

honora on January 3, 2007 at 5:06 PM

We aim to please.

I don’t believe Saddam’s “courts” afforded the Iraqi citizens any dignity in their deaths. Not very dignified to electrocute, rape, remove limbs, gas, torture, poison.

If it were a common citizen being treated this way by the new Iraqi judicial system, I might agree with you.

It wasn’t. It was a murdering dictator.

Dignity denied. TS.

It’s about what it says about the people in charge. You would have hoped that the execution could have been handled with some dignity and sense of propriety, something reflecting the majesty of the judicial authority of a democracy.

Nah, let’s make stupid jokes about it. That’ll be more funner.

I think we disrespected the former President by letting him off with some low-level taunting and a short, sharp hanging.

That’s just not the “Saddam way”.

I think the gas chamber would have been a more fitting demise.

As I recall he would feed dissidents through a meat mincer and dump the remains their relative’s doorstep.

I think we disrespected the former President by letting him off with some low-level taunting and a short, sharp hanging.

That’s just not the “Saddam way”.