Arkansas Blog

"Iraq's Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has said he wants the execution to take place before the end of the year."

Who the hell is buying that. Islamics use a different calendar.

The Democrat has plenty of time to put the story on 1A, so that'll be no excuse.

Like others on another thread, I'm uneasy about this execution. (I'm opposed to the death penalty, but that's not the half of it.)

God help any of our soldiers who get captured from here on out. Watch the numbers (Alliance forces and Iraqi civilians) on icasualties.org climb ever higher. Hell, the hornets are already stirred up. We might as well start swatting at them.

Will The Decider have our boys parade the corpse around for everyone to see (and record)? I would expect as much. (See: Uday and Usay).

I've got an uneasy feeling about this.

"Would sadness still prevail if
it was Osama facing the
noose?
Posted by: Lwood"

I've pulled this quote from the Death In The Family thread because it's more appropriate here. It's a good question, and in my own case, I wouldn't feel a bit of sadness if Osama showed up dead after a smartbomb strike.

I'd feel a bit more uneasy if they caught him alive then executed him, but not as uneasy as I am about killing Saddam.

Saddam came to power, and held power, through vicious tactics. He was horrible. But that's their country, their business, to me, and I'll always feel that the Iraqis should have risen up and overthrown him, not us.

Perhaps I've hit upon the source of my ill feelings about executing Saddam. It's that we're the ones doing it, by proxy, and that's not the way it should have been.

We should have assianated
Saddam over a decade ago.
Some say that if we do that
others will try to assinate our
leaders. Well, that would be
better than having thousands
die. Being President is a
dangerous job and they
should be willing to give their
life for this country just like
members of the military. After
all the President is the commander
in chief of our armed forces.

i just feel a sadness because some will see it as a goal accomplished and in the long run it will make no difference. the situation has gotten to where he has no importance other than some riots that will now happen for a while. they want us gone. then they will fignt among themselves to see who will be in control. it doesn't matter if we leave today or next year. or ten years from now. that is what is going to happen. the problem is we don't plan to leave ever with that billion dollar base we are building. we are going to use it as a base for access to oil in the middle east.

It's six past nine by my clock.

Spirit, just to put a little perspective on this, the Jews didn't actually execute Jesus, it was the Romans, but it was the Romans, in the long run, that blamed the Jews for it.

In this case, we (the Romans) have got the Iraqis (the Jews) to do the dirty work, but the blame is still as shifty.

I'm uneasy about it, too, not least because it sets up a messiah scenario that vindicates Saddam, no matter which side you're on. I'm not liking being a Roman.

Early reports are saying the deed is done. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who refused to intervene, said U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to interfere in another country's judicial process.

Interesting. We think we have the right to go in and take over the country, depose and execute their head of state, sorry as he was, but don't have jurisdiction to interfere in another country's judicial process.

That may be right, but it's not right...if you know what I mean.

Yep, sounds like it's a done deal. Check the CNN link again.

I guess it's too much to hope that GWB might realize that, as a head of state, he is no more secure than Saddam was. There are plenty of governments, and not a few US citizens, who would gladly see him in the same boat.

I have a feeling if any of us had been forced to watch, or worse, endure, the tortures and deaths this man committed, this thread might have a slightly different tone.

I understand the concerns voiced here, as well.

The thread might have a different overall tone, but I'd still be uneasy.

Why do I feel the urge to wash my hands?

Saddam Hussein executed in Iraq

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging at an unspecified location in Baghdad.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6218485.stm

BandB,

I apologize for making fun of a sticky SpellTools, but I couldn't resist the malaprop.

Bush assinated himself long before he became president.

saddam is dead. feel safer now?

me neither.

Well whadya know? Saddam trumps LR A & P Commission for front page in the Democrat. I'm not sure if the link will work, but you might try clicking on my name for the NWA version.

A.P. photo

CNN executed Saddam?!

Can't work up any feelings of sadness that Saddam is dead. But the rush to hang him is pretty suspicious. Was Saddam going to tell all about US involvement in his country for the last 30 to 50 years?

Or is this some kind of Bush face saving tactic invented by Karl Rove? Will Bush's numbers go up now? I am not against the death penalty in a few cases, but killing Saddam for the sake of Bush's poll numbers doesn't fly.

It appeared to make zero difference when Saddam was captured in his spidey hole. I'm very afraid the only difference his death will bring is a sharp upturn in dead bodies in Iraq over the next couple of weeks. Way too many of them American.

Bush is in his own spidey hole right this minute, and I fear what desperate moves he'll make as he faces his own trials coming up in 2007.

Like Nixon wandering around the White House muttering and crying to himself at the end of Watergate....The Decider may be in a rubber room in Crawford. Some have speculated that he goes to Crawford to have his meds regulated and that is why he's usually unable to leave Texas in a big hurry.

The past 6 years proves he's already crazy. How much more will we learn in 2006? I think we're in for some bad juju.