Here’s CNN’s account. Here’s the BBC account.
I don’t support the death penalty under any circumstances, so it’s hard for me to get worked up about it. I feel like I should feel differently about any death. But this guy was, well, what he was.
I do have questions about the trial, and I’m sure all of those will be raised. So far no reports of increased violence in Iraq, though I’d expect something symbolic to happen over the next few days, or as soon as the inevitable increased security is eased. Also, from this account it doesn’t appear that his family was in attendance. I hope that was a matter of choice for the family.
And maybe some are breating just a bit easier in Iraq? Maybe not.
Anyway, I don’t really have anything profound to say about it right now. Feel free to comment.
None of the major league blogs has put together any meaningful thoughts yet that I can find. I may update this with some links tomorrow night if I come across anything particularly worth reading. Whatever you think of the execution, the war, President Bush, whatever – this is a big moment in history.
Photo is from BBC.
32 comments
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December 30, 2006 at 9:37 am
Anonymous
We helped a minor-league psychopath turn into a world-class monster, and then we invaded the country that we had helped him secure for decades, took him out, executed him, and along the way, disposed of half a million (by some counts) Iraqi lives and almost 3,000 American lives (so far).
That’s the Cliffs Notes version.
And NO ONE in the major media has touched recently — TOUCHED! — on the subject of why the Iranians still hate us, which ISN’T necessarily because we’re a bunch of sex-obsessed, pork-eating lushes who don’t happen to doubt the veracity of the Holocaust. Iran-Iraq war, anyone? Hell, even I remember THAT one — and I was a kid!
Meanwhile, Augusto Pinochet — whom the CIA so helpfully ushered into power on Sept. 11, 1973 — got to die a peaceful death at home in Santiago, Chile shortly after turning 91, because he was too ill/frail/not psychologically capable of standing trial. SPARE ME.
AND IN CUBA…
Fidel’s dying. What next?
Sorry, the brandy & eggnog kicked in. I’m going to bed now to contemplate which movie I’d most like to see this weekend — “Dreamgirls,” or “Pan’s Labyrinth”?
December 30, 2006 at 10:22 am
Anonymous
Saddam was a puppet of the elites.
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
December 30, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Anonymous
Cristina 1:37
I would highly recommend – Jackass II.
December 30, 2006 at 2:57 pm
Anonymous
The American gov’t put saddam into power and then supplied him with the chemical weapons needed to fight the iran-iraq war. Saddam was killed only because he bit the hands that fed him.
December 30, 2006 at 4:38 pm
Anonymous
One more dead sand nigger. Here’s hoping there are many more in the new year! Care to toast Eric?
December 30, 2006 at 4:59 pm
Anonymous
Saddam worked very hard to deserve his death penalty so forgive me if I remain dry eyed. It would make a mockery of all that he killed if such tyrants were not executed. If a man who employed professional rapists and used chemical weapons is not executed, we become implicit in endorsing in some small way the crimes he committed. Besides, we could not risk that some future Sunni faction would not release him. Now it is time to remove the Iranian tyrant before he accomplishes the same atroctities as Saddam.
December 30, 2006 at 5:25 pm
Anonymous
Saddam only fell out of favor with the US because of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. That sent alarm bells off all over the place. Especially,in the board rooms of Big Oil.
US defense dept intelligence headed up by none other than Dick Cheney, claimed it had satellite photos showing that Saddam was getting ready to invade Saudi Arabia as well. The actual claim was that he had 1500 tanks and 250k troops amassed across the SA border.
From that “intelligence” Bush I was able to get his coalition together and , more importantly, was able to coopt the use of Arab territory from which to launch the liberation of Kuwait.
Two puny items of interest here;
Kuwait was originally part of Iraq, when the whole area was called Mesopotamia, a part of the Ottoman empire,(actually, the creation of Iraq was done by a British mandate in 1920 after they invaded Meso in 1916.) Saddam wanted what he believed to be their historic teritory back.
The “intelligence photos” claim of Dick Cheney’s DD, surprise, surprise, turned out to be bogus. No photos were ever produced by the US to back up those claims, even after the successful liberation of Kuwait, and in fact, Russian satellite photos taken of that area at the same time as the alledged invasion of Saudi Arabia was supposedly building up showed absolutely nothing out there across from SA except sand, sand, and more sand. Pretty good camoflage,no?
And you all scoff at conspiracies.
December 30, 2006 at 5:35 pm
Anonymous
Who gave Saddam the weapons he used? The USA. We can’t deny that.
I guess he’s dead now.
How do I feel? I am against the death penalty, but does it help anything? Heck, as I write this, there are duck hunters shooting ducks across the street from my house. Everyday there are animals and people getting killed somewhere in the world, not to mentioned obliteration of plant species.
Are we just becoming numb to all this? I think we find some solace blogging, reaching out to the universe: clickety, clackety of our keyboards in some sort of harmonic convergence of our humanity. Maybe it is an offering of prayer.
December 30, 2006 at 6:01 pm
Anonymous
It’s about damn time. May he rot in hell for all eternity.
December 30, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Anonymous
They should’ve hung Bush, Cheney, and Rummy right next to him. They are all just as guilty as him.
December 30, 2006 at 6:50 pm
Anonymous
I just have to say, with our government’s habitual lying, I don’t know what to believe about anything. I do know more Americans have been sent to their death by our president after 9/11 than died on 9/11. That’s the real crime I care about.
December 30, 2006 at 7:00 pm
Anonymous
I certainly have no love lost for Saddam. He was the nasty dictator that has been documented. But what about the rest of the dictators that still rule in parts of the middle east? How about the Saudi royal family. One of the most oppressive and brutal regimes in all of the middle east. Oh yeah, I forgot. They are our ALLIES. Guess we don’t need to hunt them down and put them on trial. And the U.S. wonders why folks from that part of the world hate us. No, it’s not because of “hating our freedoms”. It’s called the Hypocrisy of our foreign policy.
And I would like to know what raising these type of questions has to do with the “American Communist party”? What the hell? Do us all a favor and quit drinking the koolaide!
If Saddam is rotting in hell, maybe he can show George, Dick, and Rummy around when they finally check in.
December 30, 2006 at 7:33 pm
RMostranski
resources, resources, resources, America needs them and needs them now. Our motto is—we will put you in power if you give us what we want. And when your poor people start an uprising due to US, we let you kill for a while and then take you out to be replaced by another puppet on a string.
History has shown that the U.S. does it, and so does everybody else. Heck, just go watch the movie Blood Diamond and you will understand what is going on in thy world.
So ladies of the world, how does that stone on your red hand look now?
Oh, that is right—as they say, a little soap and hard scrubbing and the blood alawys goes away—so they say…..
December 30, 2006 at 7:48 pm
Anonymous
Hussein has been executed. Well, I’m sure that will fix everything.
History is writtn by the victors.
December 30, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Anonymous
it’s a start
December 30, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Anonymous
Maybe Carol should ask the duck hunters if they could spare a duck for roasting?
December 30, 2006 at 8:13 pm
Anonymous
What does duck hunting have to do with the death penalty?
December 30, 2006 at 8:27 pm
Anonymous
Can’t wait for it to come out on DVD.
December 30, 2006 at 8:39 pm
Anonymous
Saddam’s daughters–or one of them–had asked to be present, or at least to visit their father. Access to Iraq was denied.
The rush to hanging was, at the least, unseemly, and very peculiarly timed to coincide with the day that criminals receive pardon and the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God is celebrated (we’ll recall that God apparently subbed a lamb, so there are lamb sacrifices).
Yes, Saddam was not a kind good guy, and had much to answer for. But as Fisk’s column today mentions, so do Blair and Bush.
And now can we all go home? Just talked with a woman whose son signed up in the Marines. He’s 19. The signing bonus was just too nice for a kid graduating from foster care (mom lost her kids to the foster care system because of her problems, act now cleaned up and she’s in touch once again..just in time to say goodbye to her eldest).
Oh god. Happy new year.
December 30, 2006 at 8:44 pm
Anon.R.mous
Anonymous said…
One more dead sand nigger. Here’s hoping there are many more in the new year! Care to toast Eric?
What the fuck is wrong with you dumbass? I’m glad he is gone, but your stupid racist remark is just that, stupid. If he was a white guy or gal, I’d still have no problem having him swing in the breeze.
December 30, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Anonymous
it’s a start
And where does it end?
December 30, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Anonymous
Rose said: “It’s about damn time. May he rot in hell for all eternity.”
anon 12:05 said: “I don’t even know if hell or heaven exists. Do any of us really know until we actually die?Maybe Carol should ask the duck hunters if they could spare a duck for roasting?
Yuck! Duck is tough and greasy. And I don’t care how it is cooked. I like looking at them swimming with their baby ducklings.
December 30, 2006 at 10:20 pm
Anonymous
Rose, something happened to what I typed in the last post on this string. What I wanted to respond to is this: do any of us really know if there is a hell or a heaven? I think we won’t really know until we go. Pass on. Expire. Die. Maybe there is nothing.
December 30, 2006 at 10:40 pm
Anonymous
Wow Carol you are such in intelectual?
December 30, 2006 at 10:55 pm
Anonymous
There’s a big Reggae roundup in the sky waiting for all of us. Bob Marley will be playing and even Jerry G will have made the crossover to dat Jamaican jambo. And now that James Brown is soaring, why, I can hardly wait. Where’s my razor blade?
December 30, 2006 at 11:21 pm
Anonymous
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
December 30, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Anonymous
“We” armed Saddam? Yes, but less than the French and the Russians. Bush and Cheney will someday join Saddam in hell? Perhaps, but will Churchill be there also? Which world leader will not end up in Inferno? Was Lincoln innocent of shedding human blood? Are we such moral relativists that we cannot distinguish a Bush from a Saddam? And what difference does it make that Kuwait was once part of Mesopotamia? Aren’t all boundaries arbitrary? Only the egregious Arafat, as far as I know, supported Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. And Kuwait subsequently expelled thousands of palestinians (where are the protestors on that issue/). In short, antipathy to Bush seems to be blinding not a few commentators. I oppose him as much as anyone, but I hope to avoid facile moral equivalencies.
December 31, 2006 at 4:03 am
Anonymous
“Wow Carol you are such in intelectual?”
Not feeling intelectual or intellectual today. It is a more visceral feeling that I am experiencing. I am writing a post for Greg’s List about falling down on Christmas Day. Maybe it was a conversion experience like Steve writes about. If it is, I am still experiencing it. James Brown, President Ford dead and now Saddam hanged. You got to admit it has been a wierd week. My hope is, now that Saddam is gone, President Bush will declare victory and bring the troops home. But that is wishful thinking . . .
Please pour me a little more wine, Greg.
December 31, 2006 at 6:10 pm
Anonymous
we gave saddam weapons, and he killed iranians. what’s the problem. I only wish we were as evil as so many in humboldt like to think. On any given afternoon we could
kill all the chinese, iranians, arabs, and the french, and
anybody else we wanted. personally, i would off the
swiss . … and the swedes.
January 1, 2007 at 12:46 am
Anonymous
So ladies of the world, how does that stone on your red hand look now?
I asked my wife – she says: There are many ‘products’ that cost human lives, like religion, ideology, and oil. People still use them every day. Why pick on my diamonds? You don’t hear much about the thousands of people who die of Malaria in Africa every year due to the ban on DDT do you? Interesting we hear about diamonds though…
January 1, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Anonymous
Ding Dong Dell Saddam is in hell. Who put him in? Uncle Sam with a grin!
January 2, 2007 at 6:51 am
Eric V. Kirk
Anon 9:26 – are you saying that Iraq is not a sovereign nation? Did we rig the trial. That’s a very profound comment!