All three cable news networks are reporting his demise here.

Yeah. Expect a great deal of pissed off Kurds.

How so?

Imagine the execution of Nazi offenders without the Nuremburg trials. Sounds like a dramatic analogy but then imagine you are an Iraqi Kurd.

By executing Saddam in the middle of the Anfal trial the “government” effectively margenalizes the atrocities commited by Saddam against the Iraqi Kurds. Bear in mind the Ir

A good start Iraq – piss all over concepts like the rule of law. Glad to see they’ve got President Bush’s backing on this nonsense as well – I suppose they’re just following his example.

And you know what? The next generation of little ba’athists are going to pull exactly the sort of “it was a set up!” nonsense that Serbia is pulling now. No trial, no decent documentation or evidence of crimes produced, no resolution = a generation of apologists a few years down the line.

And, yeah, to my understanding, he’s only been convicted for Shi’a massacres, right? That’s not going to please his other victims (as someone already pointed out).

And, while a lot of people will say “Yeah! Good riddance!”, thinking realistically here, is the execution of saddam really in anway a vaguely positive thing, apart from indulging a brute animal impulse for retribution? He wasn’t in anyway a threat any more, his actual support base is pretty much eradicated, he’d lost his “big man” aura…not a danger. So…what has it achieved?

Subadei,

I am not sure I understand why you think the Kurds are going to be pissed off. He brutally killed many of them along with many Shia and Sunni that disagreed with him. Unless you think it is because they didn’t get their chance to judge him.
Saddam was a ruthless leader. He was the first (and hopefully last) leader to use nerve agents on his own people. Everybody feared him, including Ba’athists.
I do not think the Iraqi people feel the execution marginalized his atrocities. If anything it may have reinforced the fact that the country still has some semblance of justice and a way of achieving it.

Moloch,

Iraqis have their own rule of law. It doesn’t neccesarrily fit with western ideas of law, but it is theirs. Was it political? Hell yea it was political. I have to say that I agree with Dan tdaxp:

“Ultimately, I think the legal justification of his death matters much less than the fact of his death. (Think of Sadr et al’s statements that he should just be beheaded, or surrendered to some militia or the other.)”Â?

From what I take from the Iraqi people I work with, they are glad this part of their history has ended. They feel he got his just deserts. They also feel he got off very easy by just being hung. So far the violence here has not escalated (hopefully it doesn’t). This could be because for the Kurds and Sunnis Eid-ul Adha has started. It starts for the Shia tomorrow. Why two different days? I have no idea. The traditional start of Eid-ul Adha is the day after people climb a mountain (I don’t know what mountain or why or where for that matter. I just heard about it today.), which was yesterday.

This whole thing isn’t going to make the world safer. It is not going to stop the sectarian killings here. It is not going to stop the IEDs and sniper fire that kills soldiers. I think it may give most Iraqis a sense of closure and help them to move on. If this gives the Iraqi people hope, then I’m not standing in their way. If it’s one thing they need, it’s hope.

Saddam hated us because of our freedoms and worked with Osama Bin Laden to develop Weapons of Mass Destruction.

I didn’t think anybody still believed that.

Sonagi, I suspect that Jason is being just a little sarcastic. Apparently, for some folks, nothing is worth doing unless it instantly creates a world-spanning utopia.

There should never have even been an attempt at a civil trial in this case. Civil trials are designed to deal with crimes which occur in a society with a functioning system of law and order. These systems of law and order generally prevent (through regulation and preventative policing) atrocities of the magnitude that Saddam was responsible for. To submit Saddam to a civil trial is to pretend that such conditions applied to his rule, and I believe this is both deluded and dangerous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpk0XDYRpvI!
God bless POTUS!

Here is the video in case anyone wants to see it.

http://www.vidmax.com/index.php/videos/view/204

It doesn’t actually depict his actual execution, but you can see the body afterwards.

On an unrelated topic and speaking of interesting videos floating around. For anyone who watches Japanese TV, who is the trained gaijin monkey in this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95Njb3sG-7U&eurl=

Also can anyone tell me why a “discussion”, and I will use this term loosely, on what should be a fairly serious topic has the format of a gameshow, even including silly sound effects? They even have audience laugh tracks. Is this normal for Japanese TV?

Jason,
You aren’t the brightest shade of brown.

Ok…Who let their kid play around on the computer unsupervised?

Are your parents out for new-years? Babysitter being nice tonight?

Jason is a troll with a sense of humor.

Subadi,

That is what I thought you were going for. The Kurdish people I am sure are dissappointed, but the Kurds in the government along with the Shia helped push this along. They need to blame thier own elected officials for any “short-comings” they may feel. I still doubt they will feel marginalized.

Jason has some good points, a lot of anti-Americanism/anti-westernism is due to the freedoms our nation offers us. Look at Iran, the moderates want to be like us, and the fundamentalists that fear losing thier power if they were to become like us, hate us.
And destablization (which is a form of system perturbation), can come in different forms and help bring political change.
He’s looking at it through a different sight glass is all.

Beet pasties from the Upper Peninsula—our oppressed Great Lakes State of Superior—are delicious beyond belief. QED.

I agree with you, Snow. I do not wish to surrender freedom of speech or enfranchisement, either.