Report: Saddam will swing at 10 PM ET...or earlier

Pleasant

Gross.  As if his death will change anything or bring one person back.  Oh right, Bush will be seen tonight puffing out his chest. 

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by: miss wild thing @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 19:07:31 PM CST

I think it means

we're going to need a troop surge of say 10-50 thousand?

Remember W was going to give his plan just a couple of weeks ago for a troop surge?  Delayed and he's still listening and deciding what to do.  Now it's not going to be a decision, but a necessity!

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by: pessullivan @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 19:35:47 PM CST

The tape will show up by midnight

so that the Freepers have something new to serve as their sexual fantasy.

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by: kevinbgoode @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 19:47:53 PM CST

Why Now?

Who benefits from excuting Saddam now instead of later in the month?  Why just before Eid? (which translates Festival of Sacrifice, btw)

I wonder if Bush wanted Saddam settled before he announced his "leap forward" or "surge" or whatever the hell he's calling it these days.

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by: Zorya @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:06:46 PM CST

before eid because it is forbidden to execute someone

during their religious festivals.

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by: Lurleen @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:37:52 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Execution

I understand that, but why not wait until after Eid?  Why in such a hurry?  There was still a trial pending for the deaths by gas of thousands of Kurd noncombatants during the Iran/Iraq war. 

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by: Zorya @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:13:58 PM CST

[ Parent ]

agreed

yeah, i wonder about that too.

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by: Lurleen @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:18:49 PM CST

[ Parent ]

That trial could prove embarrasing,

since he was still our friend then.

Yeah, Iraq needs a Pinochet, US friendly dictators are always good, except they sometimes forget who'se in charge.

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by: Charles @ Sat Dec 30, 2006 at 09:14:06 AM CST

[ Parent ]

This is the spark...

.... the LieberNeoCons so desperately need to launch I-War2.0.  As lina commented so eloquently at FDL yesterday, "it takes a very special American President to make the Butcher of Baghdad an Islamic martyr."

Read RGJoe's op-ed in the WaPo today -- they are ready to blame Iran for any upswelling of violence, whether it results from this deeply flawed execution or from our Naval exercises in the Straits.

Why must our Democracy Brand be exported with the flawed Capital Punishment option, anyway?  Even smart brother Jeb! has suspended executions in Florida.

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by: TeddySanFran @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:14:11 PM CST

Hey, whatever...

...Bushies' only interest in this whole little activity over the last almost four years was to get the guy who tried to kill his daddy.  It's been a Hatfield&McCoy kind of feud since day one.

After Saddam's gone, we won't hear much about Saddam.  The Mighty Righties will try to keep pounding on him, but it won't mean very much to many of us.

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by: raj @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:14:12 PM CST

Not exactly...

We've just handed the Sunni insurgency a martyr, lost any remaining pretense of impartiality, and made it clear that when our allies become inconvenient, we'll just invade and execute them.

Wonder how long it'll be before the neocons convince Shrub that we need to go hit Iran?

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by: Darkrose @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:20:22 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Look for a surge in violence.

A martyr has just been created.

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by: Peg @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:16:24 PM CST

Link to sarcastic visual

See a sarcastic visual of George Bush playing a round of "Hangman"?here:

www.thoughttheater.com

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by: Daniel DiRito @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:20:53 PM CST

so life is sacred...

so lets hang the devil (with a Saddam face mask)!!!!

it doesn't matter that the troups in Iraq will be paying the price

W is the decider....and he decided the time is now

doesn't the word wrong start with "W"?

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by: bkmn @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:25:30 PM CST

yeah, shouldn't certain members of congress

be reevaluating this case a la terry schiavo?  or is it that only life/death of christian women are interesting enough to meddle in?

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by: Lurleen @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:41:04 PM CST

[ Parent ]

one last thought....

and Iraq is now better off?

and it's citizens are safer?

and....just to say it again....Iraq and al Qaida were so cozy we had to go into Iraq?

W was wrong........driven by Cheney's drive to get access to oil....

can you say Haliburton kids?....i knew ya could....

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by: bkmn @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:33:15 PM CST

Saddam had to die before Jan 9

when the new US Congress could call him as a witness in oversight investigations. ("Where are the reciepts for all those WMDs we sold you?")

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by: Kurlan Naiskos @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:42:54 PM CST

Forgot to mention, Riverbend's back

http://riverbendblog...

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by: Kurlan Naiskos @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 20:53:44 PM CST

Yahoo

Yahoo is reporting that the deed has been done.
http://news.yahoo.co...
I don't think that I can stomach Fox right now, it's bad enough on a slow news day.  BTW, Glenn Beck is even worse.  Is he trying to be a Stephen Colbert clone and failing miserably or is he serious?  He doesn't have the passing kidney stones grimace and attitude that Bill O'Reilly et al have so I can't tell.  Maybe HN just decided that they were going to have amateur hour at prime time.  I'll watch the BBC report either on BBC America or PBS instead.

My America includes LGBT families.

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by: Mena @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 21:38:28 PM CST

I guess

For the sake of honesty, I need to hoist my different and likely unpopular opinion.  I won't shed any tears over this man's death, nor do I feel it's the wrong thing to do.
Iraq is already so messed up and roiled by war that I don't think this will have a large effect on anything. I stand prepared to be wrong, and I'll acknowledge if it I am, but the country is already murdering each other in the streets, the Shia who will rejoice at Saddam's death are in large part responsible for the turmoil over there, and the Sunnis are already fighting a war against extinction. I'm not saying nothing anywhere will happen, but I don't see this as some sort of turning point, since, from all signs, the country is already descending into hell.

Points not to make back to me: a) this was all about oil b) the death penalty is wrong c) I must support the war/Bush/neocons d) Haliburton did it.  None of these things need to be true or have to be false for the death of a murderous tyrant to a) be the right thing to do and b) for the execution to have a noticeable but ultimately non-signficant effect on the chaos over there.

Saddam murdered tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of people.  Tens to hundreds of thousands.  His ouster and death are the only (I do mean only) bright spot in this miserable little war, and I don't want to let my dislike for Bush and horror at everything the GOP congress has done blind me to the prospect of one tiny little bit of actual justice.

My $.02.

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by: torrentprime @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 21:50:53 PM CST

comments registered

thanks for commenting even if you feel your opinion might be unpopular.  however, in my opinion, it is not fair to tell anyone how they may or may not reply to your comments.  you don't have the right to silence anyone while you freely speak.

on saddam:  if i were a kurd or from another group with pending grievances agains saddam, i would be disappointed that he was executed before the trial stemming from my grievances had been completed.  seems unfair to me. i think at least 2 trials were ongoing.

i don't care what kind of person (monster?) saddam was.  i am sad to be a party to his execution, no matter how far removed.

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by: Lurleen @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:11:05 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Lurleen

To nip a horrendous side discussion in the misunderstood bud, my comments about "what not to say" were completely rhetorical; my point was nothing as melodramatic as "to silence anyone while [i] freely speak."
So don't extend my comments to some sort of attempt to stifle free speech, for heaven's sake.  It's a debate mechanism, not censorship; I'm sorry you missed that: I was pointing out that none of those knee-jerk comebacks adequately expressed my opinion and I was ensuring that no one "went there."

I was simply making sure that no one tried to spin my analysis of the death of Saddam as some sort of support for Bush, the war, oil or conservatives. You know as well as I that anything dealing with Bush can get emotional and one-sided, and it's possible for some other-wise level headed people to lash out against anything Bush or the US government does simply because it's Bush at the (ostensible) helm.

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by: torrentprime @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:35:26 PM CST

[ Parent ]

very good!

i'm glad it was a misreading of your intent on my part.  thanks for clarifying.

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by: Lurleen @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:39:47 PM CST

[ Parent ]

What justice?

I'm not seeing any actual justice here, not when he was executed for a tiny fraction of the crimes he was guilty of, and not when there were serious questions from the beginning about the trial itself. I also have to wonder why the rush; surely, if justice was important, they could have waited long enough to have the trial for all of the other things he'd done. Of course, since that might have reminded people of how Saddam was America's best friend back when he was killing Iranians, and how we blocked UN resolutions condemning his use of chemicals that we sold him against his own citizens...yeah. Not so much with the justice.

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by: Darkrose @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:29:26 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Dark:

"I'm not seeing any actual justice here, not when he was executed for a tiny fraction of the crimes he was guilty of"
(emphasis mine)

So he was executed for one crime: the death over 100 people. The death of over 100 people.  That's not justice? And your own sentence indicates that he was guilty (your words) of much, much more.  Do we need to establish guilt for each and every death before sentence is passed?  How many of the tens of thousands of deaths do you think he should have been found guilty of before it's fair to pass sentence?

The other things you mention (US support) are our crimes, not his.

And as for whether the trial was fair or not: the country is wracked by civil war, there are carbombs, murders, assassinations, his defense team was killed (or was it the prosecution? both?) and yet this man was given a trial, representation, and he was judged by his countrymen. How much more does justice require? And he admitted he did it.  This wasn't some railroaded black defendant in the South or something; he said he did it and thought it was ok.  How much more do we need?

Let's focus our energy on supporting the Democratic party in the new term, electing a progressive in '08, and securing marriage equality.  Let's also focus on the disaster in Iraq and how to end it.  Let's not focus on the death of a murderous dictator and agonize over whether it was fair.

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by: torrentprime @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:41:49 PM CST

[ Parent ]

...

How many of the tens of thousands of deaths do you think he should have been found guilty of before it's fair to pass sentence?

I think he should have been tried for all of them, not just the ones that were connected to the current ruling party in Iraq. And I think he should have been tried in the International Criminal Court, since that's what it's there for.

The other things you mention (US support) are our crimes, not his.

Yes, and those things are the reason that the trial was conducted as it was. You're missing the point here: it's not about whether or not Saddam was guilty. We know heIt's that to the rest of the world, it's going to look like the US puppet government made sure to get rid of an inconvenient former ally before he could reveal anything that would be really embarassing. In the process, we've lost any remaining shreds of moral credibility, because we've made it clear that we essentially traded around 800,000 Iraqi and 3,000 American lives for what was a glorified, protracted assassination.

If you don't believe me, see what it looks like to at least one Iraqi woman.

Let's also focus on the disaster in Iraq and how to end it.  Let's not focus on the death of a murderous dictator and agonize over whether it was fair.

The fact that the trial was so transparently not fair is only going to make the disaster worse.

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by: Darkrose @ Sat Dec 30, 2006 at 19:14:14 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Amen!

Sadam was as dangerous to society as Hitler! No one mourned Hitler's death and it was not TOO SOON! Regardless of one's thoughts or feelings on Bush and the war, we are still alive to have them. What about the thousands of people slaughtered at the hands of Sadam? What would they think about his execution? Oh yeah, they are dead and cannot longer voice their opinions. The only thing good to come out of this was is Sadam's justice!

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by: RB @ Sat Dec 30, 2006 at 08:20:20 AM CST

[ Parent ]

This is sarcasm, right?

Sadam was as dangerous to society as Hitler!

If it isn't sarcasm, it is ridiculous.

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by: raj @ Sat Dec 30, 2006 at 09:57:05 AM CST

[ Parent ]

I guess it's true

Bad things happen to bad presidents.

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by: commie_hedgehog @ Fri Dec 29, 2006 at 22:04:45 PM CST

Saddam's death & what we can control

Hey Pam - Hope all's well.

That's a good, scary point on the blood lust.

His death was inevitable. That's not to say such an execution doesn't warrant debate on an ethical level. But right now, his death is irrelevant to promoting peace. Our butt's in a precarious sling with Iran overtly and covertly watching for power adjustments in the region. And if they see a chance to dismantle democracy either via Israel's crumbling or Iraq's - they'll take it.

I don't know what next to do but promote peace locally and eat chocolate and laugh and hug more (reading Stratfor.com helps).

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by: Jill Foster @ Sat Dec 30, 2006 at 00:46:21 AM CST

Does anyone

anywhere think for one second that Saddam even got a fair trial?  Not that I have any love for the man, but come on.  And does anyone believe that it was anyone but America that executed him?  This execution is going to make America look worse in the eyes of the world, than we already do.

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by: mdgarcia @ Sat Dec 30, 2006 at 08:27:54 AM CST

The fairness of the trial was irrelevant...

... and his execution was pre-ordained.

After all, Saddam tried to kill Bush's daddy.  Call it victor's justice.  But mourn the death of the people--Americans, Iraqis and others, that brought this to pass.  Most Americans don't give a tinker's damn about the deaths of the Iraqis that Bush wrought.

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by: raj @ Sun Dec 31, 2006 at 07:59:22 AM CST

[ Parent ]