Saddam Hussein has been hung

[Ree]

...or as someone said to me, "Well hung".

Thoughts on this, anyone?

Personally, I am not in favour of capital punishment, and would have preferred that he spend the rest of his life living in misery and made to look at his own atrocities.

I worry about violence springing from it.

Has Bush really gained anything by this man's execution?

[stormtreader]

I actually agree with the decision to hang him. I think that he did not and would never have regarded what he did as wrong in any way.

He seemed to think that everything he did he had a right to do, and i think that leaving him alive would have left an opportunity open for him to be rescued and a long and bloody civil war to have taken place.

Its probably not going to be a popular opinion, but there it is.

[rahmota]

Well the biggest problem with Sadam dead or Alive would be the saddimites using him as a symbol. A symbol of the "aggression" and "evil" of the Americans for invading and removing Saddam. A rallying subject for civil war, like they need much excuse, for them to focus their aggression.

Thats one thign I'm concerned about remember Saddam becoming the Iraqi hardcore's version of remember the Alamo.

The only thing that might keep it from becoming a major war focus is that Saddam was not a nice guy to the general public either. The Kurds are certainly not shedding any tears i am sure. The various warlords/imams and etc.. that are vying for the top dog position may invoke saddam in one way or another as an example of the bad old days they arn't going to go back to.

Just a couple ideas I was thinking of.

[AFPheonix]

I'm not sorry to see him gone, but anyone who thinks this is going to turn the situation over there around is kidding themselves. If anything, the sunni camp will most likely be even more surly than before.

[Rapscallion]

Hmm - his crimes included crimes against humanity, detention without trial, launching a war against a country that didn't attack his first (Kuwait), and being backed by the American government and thus an embarrassment (Iran vs Iraq).

I think Bush can be found guilty of all of the above. Anyone got any spare rope?

On a more serious note, what else could have been done with him? Keep him around as a magnet for those who would seek power through his release? If someone managed to release him and build a force to overthrow the government once the American forces were gone, they'd be able to take the reins of power once he'd gone via more natural means - he's not young these days. I'd give him a decade at the very most had he not been killed.

The only way to do that would be to keep him in the US where he couldn't be rescued.

I certainly don't agree with the policy of executing him. It looks altogether as if the US has arranged to remove someone with whom they once had an alliance and arrange for his convenient death. Releasing him is out of the question, and a lifetime of captivity is unrealistic.

I did hear one vigorous opponent of the death penalty speaking on the radio the other day. He said something along the lines of, "I know he's arranged for thousands of people to be killed in horrible ways, and I know he was inhumane, but I really don't think we should kill him..." He didn't really do a good job of convincing anyone...

Rapscallion

[TheRoo]

I am against any capital punishment. That being said, one of the big problems with Saddam's execution is the perception that it was an American kangaroo court that convicted him. If we, as people of the world, decide to put people to death, we have to make sure that we do it right. There is no way that he got a fair trial, so that makes it illegitimate.

[MadMike]

Hmm - his crimes included crimes against humanity, detention without trial, launching a war against a country that didn't attack his first (Kuwait), and being backed by the American government and thus an embarrassment (Iran vs Iraq).

I think Bush can be found guilty of all of the above. Anyone got any spare rope?

I've been saying the same thing for quite some time.

I'm certainly not going to shed any tears about Saddam getting killed -- he was not a nice guy by any stretch of the imagination. But it's certainly not going to solve anything. We're still stuck in Iraq with no end in sight, with our dead now at 3000 and still counting.

Meanwhile, King George is undoubtedly crowing about how he brought a known terrorist to justice. Just one question for him: Where is Bin Laden? Do you even remember him?

[Luna]

I think he deserved to die, but I also think it's going to provoke more attacks. Damned if you do...

Mike is right...what happened to Bin Laden? It's all so convenient and neatly been swept under the rug.

[rahmota]

Bin laden got captured turned state's evidence and is now working at a 7-11 in New jersey.

Seriously as little as you hear about him he might as well be.

As for this. In many ways It seems like it has had as much affect as changing the colors of the local ball team's jersey.