BBC article: Saddam Hussein sentenced to death

I'm sorry, but I need to rant about this. Why can't we learn from the mistakes of the past and break the cycle of violence and vengeance? What does this say about the virtues of the 'new and improved' Iraq? That it's first big public event is not only capital punishment, it's death by hanging.

*sigh*

What is wrong with life imprisonment, even given the farce of this anything-but-impartial trial? Why do the radical extremists need another martyr, another example of how their enemies can't behave any better than they do? How on earth will this improve the situation?

The way forward is to recognise and uphold a fundamental respect for human rights and dignity, in defiance of those who would not, and yet again we see this does not happen.

I also wasn't surprised by the last section of that article, because it enunciated exactly my thoughts


Bleh.

EEEEEEEWWWWWWW! LIBERALS! SQUISH!

This is exactly what that retard needs. He's done many a bad thing in his rule, and should be put to death as of it. It's not about weather or not we as Americans like life, which we do, but it's about fairness. He's commited mass murder (well, had other people do it for him, but whatever) and in all fairness, he needs to meet the same fate as them! There, my two cents.

Man, I am happy Europe doesn't have the death penalty. It just seems harder on someone to imprison him forever than to kill him. Additionally, say what you want, but killing is wrong. Heck, even the bible knows this, and the bible SUCKS.
Eh, I shouldn't comment more, don't want to offend people who are for the death penalty.
To sum it up: Death penalty is stupid, useless, and wrong. Anyone who follows the eye for an eye policy should think about what would happen if this always was followed through.

Damn. That sucks.

-hiss-

Where's the 'banging head against wall' emoticon when you need it?

Hell, where's the 'imminent collapse of Western civilization' emoticon when you need it?

1.

2. The second one will soon arrive, whether we like it or not.

Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Life imprisonment would be so much worse than death. Especially for someone religious (ie. Saddam). For him, death is more of a reward than an actual punishment.

I dislike the death penalty intensely, and I find the American facility to think it in any way or form appropriate, extremely disturbing. The death of Saddam is not the best place for me to make this argument, since his crimes are both heinous and well documented, but his trial was (judicially speaking) an utter farce, and anyone who thinks that it was sufficient justification to have him killed needs to re-examine their own concepts of fairness and justice.

Fairness presumes objectivity, which obviously is not present here.

Justice is not about making victims feel avenged (killing Saddam won't bring back the thousands he murdered), nor is it about balancing a history of wrong-doing against others with wrong-doing against the perpetrator. It should act to deter further crime (making a martyr will do the complete opposite), rehabilitate if possible, or minimize their impact on society if not.

For all his crimes, Saddam doesn't deserve state-sanctioned murder - if you want to think of it this way, he doesn't deserve the luxury of martyrdom. Nor should his knowledge of the actual events involved and whatever secrets he may hold be eradicated. And come on, hanging? Why not bring out the old guillotine, showing the bloody head to the cameras would make great television.

Meanwhile, continued violations of humanitarian obligations by an occupying force go unchecked by the coalition. Hell, it would be great if the military actually COUNTED the number of civilian deaths to demonstrate those lives matter... let alone prosecuting their own members who allegedly kill innocent civilians with indiscriminant negligence.

Argh, sorry... just frustrated.

Edit: Bah, Aiakon said it better, shorter and more eloquently, as usual. Damn him!

I'm opposed to the death penalty too, but you have to realise that that's a moral stance countries with unstable governments can't necessarily afford. Imprisoning dangerous criminals within the country is risky because a subsequent corrupt government coming into power can grant amnesties, setting them free again. This risk is even greater for a former dictator who still has supporters willing to resort to violence, and who can regain popularity in the public's eyes if the country's reconstruction doesn't go well. The dictator's existence alone within the country is a continued source of instability and an obstacle to creating a stable government and society. The moral qualm of the state committing murder is more than mitigated in my eyes by the knowledge that not doing so could result in much greater loss of life down the line; in foregoing execution, the state is allowing that loss of life to take place.

I come from a country that had a revolution, executed its dictator, and promptly abolished the death penalty. And I firmly believe that those were the right decisions. Western nations are very lucky not to have to make those sorts of decisions.

That having been said, a death penalty handed down in a trial commonly viewed as a farce can only be a harm.


Er, Saddam and his supporters were not religious. They were a quite secular faction.

I'm not in the mood to address the points in your post (I need me lunch), so I'm just going to address the one where you dismiss Salvation's (reasonable) point by calling attention to what you regard as a factual inaccuracy.

Religion isn't a constant for anyone. It's one of those things you rush back to when you're life goes to . Saddam may have led a relatively secular regieme but that is by no means concrete evidence to suggest that he isn't religious now. He has been milking the Islamic vibe the whole way through his trial.

I think he should have been given whatever punishment would be more torturous. which would probably be life.

Don't even get me started on capital punishment. I used to support it, but now I just find it a waste of money and a way of letting criminals get off "easy."

Gosh. My posts sound really pompous, nowadays.

I suspect that "milking the Islamic vibe" is a little closer to the mark than "rushing back to religion when his life went to ".

Sorry for going off in a tangent here, but on a historical note, the guillotine is a surprisingly humane means of execution, and it was created explicitly to be more efficient and less painful than hanging. Decapitation through the guillotine is quicker and significantly less painful than having your neck broken or asphyxiation.

Hanging is a little stupid. You'd think western civilization was past that. At least do lethal injection. But really it's a moot point. Death penalty in general is gross, out of date practice, in my mind. And Ysuran- I say that as a relatively strong conservative. Really, though, the whole war shouldn't have happened. It was never really about freeing the Iraqi people. There's a heck of a lot worse situations that would probably be easier to solve too. As for homeland security... What's that? North Korea succesfully (well, possibly) tested a Nuclear bomb while this "war on terror" was going on? Isn't that ironic.

Saddam and his factions were responsible for funnaling money and support to Jeemah Islamiya, Se Asian terrorist group, who are respnsible for the war in the South of my homeland, and for blowing up several primary schools (Anuban 1,2 and 3, like prek and k in the us I think).

Karma s a bitch, isn't it. He'll get his and so will they. Time means nothing when the scythe is at your back.
I personally have no opinon of capital punishment, as it is pretty new to me as an idea. While I can never imagine killing someone as a punishment (we have some of the mosy horrorful prisons on earth, prisons of legend even, our prisons are so much worse than death, IE: Bang Kwan-the Asian Git-Mo)

Meh, whatever he gets, he gets, can't fight it.

EDIT: love,mimi

You forgot your "love, mimi" signature at the end.

1. Saddam was NOT religious, in almost any sense of the word.... Or has everyone forgotten thats like the number one line liberals use to say that Osama has no connection to Saddam?

2. Life in prison = Half of Iraq thinking Saddam is still president. A dead man can't be presidant.


3. Iraq is not western civilization, or has nobody noticed that yet? Suggesting that Iraq is western civilization is seems pretty darn presumptious of you. Nobody remember Babylonia? They founded thier OWN civilization. Gave us the whole number 0 concept and everything.