If this is simply opinion, I want to be perfectly honest. I am not happy about the outcome of all this. I truthfully am in mourning for Saddam Huisein. Not because I'm a terrorist. Because he was a person, really. I'm just feeling very upset about the situation right now. I don't think he should have been hanged either. Can we really call that humane?
I know Saddam was one of those "bad guys" that just needed to be "taken care of", but I don't feel like it was our place to decide that. I don't believe we should have had a hand in this man's death, bad or not. Maybe I don't completely understand just how bad he was. But I just feel like he was treated like he was less than a person and it wasn't right.
What really strikes me now is that we won't be hearing any good about the Iraqi leader. All we will hear is how horrible he was. All people can talk about is what the TV tells us. I think a lot of people might be too ignorant to have any other opinion. Or maybe scared to doubt the decisions the U.S. Government is making. Or doubt the messages we here on CNN. Maybe scared to have some sort of compassion for the man because we've heard he's so evil.
Did Saddam deserve to die? I can't say. It's not my place to say.
Can the hanging of a man really be a fair symbolic gesture for peace in Iraq?
I do see that this offers great relief for the most of the Iraqi people though. I cannot preach about the decisions being completely unjust knowing that there are people feeling so much more incredibly safe tonight.
It's good to hear that we had not a part in the execution. I hope the Iraqi people will begin to take a stand for themselves now. It feels like the U.S. is controlling far too much over there.
Still, it is unsettling that that Iraq did not rid itself of supression without foreign invasion.
In Dearborn, MI (a heavily Muslim town in Michigan) they were dancing in the streets in celebration. Justice was done.
"He who takes a life...it is as if he has destroyed an entire world....but he who saves one life, it is as if he has saved the world entire" Talmud Sanhedrin 4:5
!Hasta la victoria siempre! (Always, until Victory!)
-Ernesto "Che" Guevarra
Still, it is unsettling that that Iraq did not rid itself of supression without foreign invasion.
Sometimes, the people need help. The people could not rid themselves of Saddam in any legal way. Nor could they rise up against Saddam's army. Saddam had an iron grip on the country, that is, until the US became involved.
War is terrible, death is terrible. One is unavoidable, the other is inevitable.
I can't claim to know whether hanging him was right or not--I don't have that kind of insight or wisdom. What I do know is that I'm glad the whole thing is over, that we don't have to worry about, at least, that particular dictator anymore. I'm really glad that it was the Iraqi (sp?) people who did the judgment and sentence--they are the ones with that right, not us.
"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function...We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." ~C.S. Lewis
The United States government will say that the Iraqi court tried him and found him guilty, but come on, we were hanging over their shoulders the entire time.
I don't think that he was a good person, but I've always been against the death penalty. I'd prefer to see criminals live in prison and work for the rest of their sorry lives. Death is the easy way out, and two wrongs don't make a right.
For every cruel ruler that is removed from power, there will be people who couldn't be happier, and there will be angry people who want that person in power. In the US, we make Fidel Castro out to be pure evil, but there are thousands of people in Cuba who owe him their lives; he's given them land and health care. For example, Cuba actually has a lower infant mortality rate than the US. It doesn't make Castro a good person; it just depends on one's perspective.
Rosethorn said: Can the hanging of a man really be a fair symbolic gesture for peace in Iraq? That's a good question. I suppose, as they say, history will decide.
"My pet, I've been to the devil, and he's a very dull fellow. I won't go there again, even for you..."
I believe he should pay for the 100 and whatever number people it was he killed. However, he could be viewed as a martyr, so I believe some other method should have been used that could not be seen as glorious. I still believe it was a great day for the planet. He richly deserved it. I mourn a death, but at the same time, am glad to see him go. (Can this be understood? I'm not trying to contradict myself, but it sounds like I am. My explanation is simply difficult to put to words.)
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. - George Orwell, 1984
Hanging sounds like a pretty horrible way to die. And I heard that he was taunted in the lead up to his death.
Not the way I would want to go.
But I don't know if his death was avoidable. Obviously not in the long run, because everyone dies, but I don't think any one could really afford to leave him alive. And if he was left alive, he would rot in a cell all his life.
So maybe he had to go.
But I'm glad it wasn't me who hanged him.
Oh, you're angry! Click your pen.
--Music and Lyrics
At least the Irais' have common sense. I'm for the death penalty and I'm personaly glad Saddam is rid from the world. There truly is still justice left.
Can someone refresh my memory about the Gulf War? I believe it was mainly toward the oil in Texas but Saddam was connected to it.
At either case, thank God Saddam is gone, and never will terrorize another human being again.
If we owned the gallows, we weren't the ones that tried him. His own nation did, and I'm glad Iraq is one nation with common sense. They made the right decesion.
Me: "RIP Saddam"
Friend: "Why does he deserve to rest in peace?"
Me: "Because, even though he was a ****, he was still a living, thinking being"
Friend: "No, he was a ****. You sacrifice your own human rights by taking them away from others."
I was almost swayed by that comment. But I still believe that no one had the right to throw him into the unknown terror of death. Lifelong inprisonment (including protection from outer world) - except for his last days, which would be spent with friends or family (if he had any). - There's my sentence.
