Saddam Hussein Hanged

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Originally Posted by studiose

Yes, there is truth in that, but as far as I understand the only limit set to candidates was that they be over 30 years old and have a high school diploma. In my opinion that doesn't disqualify Iraq from being a democracy, as it doesn't favour one section of the population to another (except the educated to the uneducated, and the older to the younger :) ). Some restrictions are probably necessary and I guess every democracy has them. For example, convicted criminals are not allowed to stand for public office in any democratic country, I suppose.

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Saddam and other Baathists were excluded. I think they should have been given a chance to prove if they were as popular as they claimed to be.

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Originally Posted by Eki

Saddam and other Baathists were excluded. I think they should have been given a chance to prove if they were as popular as they claimed to be.

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OK, that's true and it's a valid point. I don't agree that they should have been allowed to run, but it does make the elections not entirely democratic. I guess I'll have to eat the words I posted in post #25 and replace them with...

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Before the invasion, Iraq was a stable dictatorship whose citizens could be executed basically because Saddam Hussein didn't like them. Now, Iraq is an unstable country aiming at democracy whose citizens can only be executed if a court of law finds them guilty of a grievous crime.

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Alright? :p :

I'm surprised that none of the Brits have expressed their surprise at the unedifying albeit compelling footage of Saddam in the moments leading up to his execution.
Poor taste IMHO especially in view of the fact that many children would have been watching.
Is this a new initiative in stark, graphic TV journalism I wonder?
What next? Noose At Ten?

It must be said and it gives me no pleasure to say it but the man met his fate with great stoicism and no little defiance judging by the steadiness of his bearing and the words of contempt on his lips as the noose was tightened around his neck.
I suppose he deserves some grudging credit for that.

This article summarizes Saddam quite well. Saddam was to the US what Ceausescu, Hoenecker et al were to the Soviet Union. When they were no longer useful, they could go:

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Dec...illain,00.html

U.S. Tolerated, Then Villified Saddam

Saturday, December 30, 2006

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — When U.S. leaders decided it was time to despise Saddam Hussein, he made the perfect villain.

He was cocky and cunning. He looked dangerous and deranged standing at rallies firing a gun into the air, conduct unbecoming a head of government.

He was Hitler Lite, or as the first President Bush put it, "Hitler revisited," lacking the endless armies, but close enough for U.S. purposes. He had a history of atrocities. His black mustache heightened the aura of menace.

America's quarter-century entanglement with the Iraqi leader ended Friday at the gallows.

His hanging closed the books on a man who dealt with and benefited from the United States, then defied it, then ran like a rabbit into a hole in the ground, reduced to his own army of one.

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Originally Posted by BDunnell

Forgive me, but what did you expect them to do? The way the war in Germany ended created a messy situation in geographical terms, largely down to the behaviour of the Soviets. In the end, it was possible to contain the problems it caused without armed conflict ensuing. The key difference is that the East and West Germans didn't want to start a civil war with one another. I don't see what Germany has to do with this topic, quite honestly.

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read a few posts back, then maybe you see why germany is in this topic.

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Originally Posted by studiose

, but it does make the elections not entirely democratic. :p :

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just like someone is just a bit pregnant.

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Originally Posted by Tomi

just like someone is just a bit pregnant.

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Who? :uhoh:

:p :

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Originally Posted by Eki

Saddam's regime had courts too. I'm sure Iraqi citizens can still be executed if those now in power don't like them and claim it's a grievous crime in the eyes of the current government. The claims about death squads in Iraqi police and torture in Iraqi prisons may not be totally ungrounded.

Saddam was hanged because he punished those who tried to assasinate him. I'm sure it was a grievous crime in his eyes. I'm sure every nation would punish those trying to kill their leader. For example, the man who tried to assasinate Ronald Reagan in the 80s is still in prison. Isn't it inhumane? You don't get that long prison sentence just for an attempted murder here in Finland.

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Saddams's courts were imaginably more biase than your probably think. He shot people himself. Saddam was hung for ordering the killings of Kurd in the 80's with biological weopons. But to your mention of Ronald Reagan. The man who tried to kill him was a psyhcopath. He wrote letters to actess Jody Foster saying he loved her so much that he'd kill the president. He was put into a mental institution and not a prison. He is currently out of that institution and lives with his elder mother.

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Originally Posted by Hayden Fan

Saddam was hung for ordering the killings of Kurd in the 80's with biological weopons.

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That's incorrect. He was sentenced to death for having over 140 civilians killed after the assassination attempt in 1982.

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Originally Posted by Hayden Fan

Saddam was hung for ordering the killings of Kurd in the 80's with biological weopons.

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He is/was actually in the middle of a second trial for these crimes. THose trials will likely continue for his co-defendents in spite of his execution.