by Elsewhere 16 Replies latest jw friends
... but we better not let anyone see the trial or the testimony because they will find out about all the business we had with him!
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/12/29/sprj.irq.main/index.html
Allawi is quoted saying, "Saddam Hussein's trial would not be public since he could name countries and persons whom he gave money."
Yeah, it looks like a lot of people got their hands dirty on this one!
I hope they do go public with the trial...and execution. France Germany and Russia will be against a public trial...for the obvious reasons. (Chirac has a lot to worry about here I think). Some US companies will be a bit worried too...I say...BRING IT ALL OUT IN PUBLIC!
Yeru, merry Christmas Mr Millitary...
... I agree the trial should be public.
But the execution?
Ignoring obvious jibes about 'nice to know there's gonna be a fair trial then' (yeah, we all know he's guilty, but we could at least pretend the trial has a purpose other than making any punitive action against him 'official'), I have to say that I find someone relishing the public execution of even a tyrant like that a little hyperbolic - or if you meant it, sad.
Yes, let us end the life of someone with no respect for life by showing we have no respect for life! What a victory for the free world; now a word from our sponsor...
You may add a long, slow, deeply ironic round of applause to that.
AB,
I'm not a big proponent of the death penalty...but this guy deserves it if anyone does. A public execution (hanging perhaps) might go a long way in sending a message to other tyrants.
I would say some very powerful people have a vested interest in Saddam committing "suicide" by hanging himself in his cell. We'll see.
Megadude,
Not in the US government...otherwise he wouldn't have made it into captivity. A suicide by Saddam would be disasterous for the US PR wise.
In the mid-east, public executions are common. The Palestinians routinely kill their "opposition" or suspected "collaborators" in public via machine guns and then display the bodies as a warning to others. Saudi Arabia still beheads with a sword, in public. I can go on and on. Let the Iraqi people decide.........
One thing is for sure, Saddam will get more "due process" than all his hundreds of thousands of victims.......
:Yes, let us end the life of someone with no respect for life by showing we have no respect for life! What a victory for the free world; now a word from our sponsor...
I disagree. If there is anything Saddam has respect for it is his own life. I believe his disrespect for human life in general is justification for society to end his life (his prized possesion, as it were). To me, ending the life of one person who disrespects the lives of many (by ending them - many times brutally) does not imply a disrespect of life in general. I believe it can be argued the opposite is true.
rem
The fact that Saddam is in custody, and his subsequent trial and the (hopefully) legitimacy thereof, are far more important than the actual punishment, assuming that said punishment will either be life in prison or death.
Rem, I believe that Abbaddon meant that to execute Saddam publicly in a showy way would be to show disrespect for life, by making the execution into some kind of event or show. As I'm sure everyone will guess based on my previous comments on this topic, I think that a public hanging does little in a productive way. It tills vengeance back into the public mindset. And with regard to sending messages, I don't think there is any evidence to indicate that rates of crime and lawlessness are lower in places that execute vindictive justice.
That said, of course, the Iraqi people should be the ones to decide his fate. That much, I believe, is just.
SNG
