Saddam is still dead
It’s interesting how different people describe his death.
here
Saddam Hussein never bowed his head until his neck snapped, and his last words were equally defiant: “Down with the traitors, the Americans, the spies and the Persians.”
here
“He was a broken man,” al-Rubaie said. “He was afraid. You could see fear in his face.”
I saw the footage. Mostly he looked vaguely bewildered.
International reaction is pretty much as expected. Sunni nations oppose, Shi’a nations in favor, the civilised world says he’s a monster but the death penalty is barbaric, Israel and the US say it’s “justice”.
My opinion? Saddam wasn’t a nice person, but he should’ve been tried before an international court, because that’s where crimes against humanity belong, and not in a mock trial that really only had one possible outcome. The death penalty is a disgusting thing, but it is especially egregious when it is imposed after an unfair trial (Amnesty International agrees with me).
The Iraqi court was lamentably but predictably blood-thirsty. The US should never have handed him over to them. The fact that they did just makes this whole thing feel like a cover-up murder.
Either way, this execution will do nothing to unify Iraq or “move the region forward”. I hope it won’t tear it further apart, but I’m not sure that’s even possible, at this point.
Haplo said,
December 31st, 2006 at 8:05 am
Where did you find footage?
Barbara said,
December 31st, 2006 at 2:08 pm
The whole execution thing is barbaric. I’m a strong opposer of death-penalty, I don’t like people playing “god” and making decisions on the sole thing people have that is completely their own, eg their life.
What’s even more barbaric is the fact that the execution was caught on tape and distributed to various arabic television broadcasts. That’s just sick, in my opinion. I wonder how long it’ll take before the tape starts going around on the internet. I know for one I won’t be watching it, I don’t want to see a man hanged.
And indeed, I agree with you cairn, I don’t think either it will do anything to aid Iraq and the current situation there: it will not help those people dieing every day nor will it stop the violence. (in fact there were several bombings in Iraq the same day Saddam died)
It’s a sad sad world sometimes
Cairnarvon said,
December 31st, 2006 at 4:43 pm
Just of the bit right before the execution (up to right after they put the noose around his neck) and the bit right after, Haplo. Not the execution itself.
They showed it on the news.
I don’t think they actually released the entire thing, but I’m sure it will be leaked soon enough. People are like that.