“That the dead are seen no more … I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth; those that never heard of one another would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears”—Samuel Johnson, from The History of Rasselas: Prince of Abyssinia
So it is done.
And truth be told, I have very little to say about the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Was his public execution justified? Of course it was. Will his death halt the insurgency? Of course it will not—though I believe it will have a greater impact than many opinion shapers are allowing, particularly insofar as it provides a kind of psychological relief for the many Shia oppressed and brutalized by the thuggish Ba’athist regime.
Today, let those who weep for Hussein’s death—and more pointedly, those who pine for the halcyon days of his “containment” (a contingent that, sadly, consists of many of our own foreign policy realists, who, like colicky, mewling anachronisms have sprung newly birthed from the intellectual womb of Henry Kissinger or Richard Nixon or Gerald Ford or George HW Bush)—take a good look at themselves.
Let them, for one brief moment, bracket their partisan aggressions and reflect on what the US and its allies have done in removing this butcher from power—which, contrary to received wisdom, has made Iraq a far better place, if only for the moment potentially.
And that was one of the ancillary goals of the Iraq campaign, was it not?—to allow the Iraqis, or better, fellow humans who have for years lived in the kind of constant fear peculiar to brutal dictatorships, a chance to forge their own destinies, to rule as a people, moving sectarian tensions off the literal battlefield and transporting them into the battlefield of politics and policy formation.
The process is necessarily slow—the preconditions for a democratic republic depend upon an uneasy trust between traditionally warring ethnic factions (which trust cannot be built overnight, though it most certainly can be aided by elections and a ratified constitution) and a cessation of sectarian violence, something the coalition has to this point failed to produce, though that fact is, I believe, the fault of a military strategy that has been too introspective and politically circumspect—but it is a process that can and will succeed, provided it is aided, henceforth, both by the timely assertion of political will and by a willingness to resist the steady drumbeat of defeatism from both the left and right daily refracted through those ideologues in the press whose worldview, it is perfectly evident, would be stroked by a defeat of the US hegemon and its vile militarism.
Such defeatism continues to embolden the insurgency—because, protestations from the left to the contrary, our enemies, who are also the enemies of a free Iraqi state, do indeed follow our internecine political squabblings, just as they work to undermine our resolve through a campaign of propaganda aided, wittingly or not, by both a credulous media and the useful idiots who help their message to take hold.
As Samuel Johnson famously noted, nothing so concentrates the mind like the prospect of a hanging.
Today, then, let us hope that the hanging of one of the world’s most infamous tyrants and mass murderers forces many of those who have only recently—and cynically, in many instances— disabused themselves of their idealism in favor of the kind of protectionist (and oft-criticized) foreign policy long relegated to the political right, to reconsider, if only for a moment, what it is they wish the US to be.
*****
For a roundup of reaction, check Pajamas Media. See also, Jules Crittenden.
update: Roger Simon answers John Cole and other anti-death penalty purists.
And this is why I’m glad to see JG back.
J
Well said, Jeff. I had always understood the democratization of Iraq as being the primary purpose of the invasion. WMD may have been the selling point, but I think that anybody who was paying attention, and who was HONEST about it (i.e., not merely looking for a bat with which to beat the president), understood that the context of the battle was one where the removal of tyrannical regimes in the region would hamper the abilities of terrorist groups to arm and train. To that end, I think Saddam’s hemp cravat is an important not-so-grim milestone.
Heck, too me this is a simple application of justice. Justice being getting what one deserves. He can join the CeauÅŸescu family, Mussolini, Hitler, and the like on the “pile of executed despot/thugs”. Good riddance.
Nice to this post – it also focuses the mind on what is important.
Nicely put, Jeff.
What the howlers and handwringers fail to notice is that we have moved well beyond the point of victory. There is no better evidence of this that the execution of Saddam Hussein by a sovereign Iraqi government. As Martha Stewart would say, it’s a good thing.
The entity that is having trouble sealing it’s own victory is Iraq.
I am thankful that Saddam has assumed room temperature. This is a good step and now we have to finish the job. There are thousands of other “jihadists” who need similar treatment.
To think we can negotiate with these vermin or to even “talk” with them is ludicrous. They only understand one thing – force and we have been very weak in this respect. Shock and awe were more like spit and paw – very limited and not very inspiring. Our effort needs to be balls to the walls and go for it all. We have no choice but to fight this damn thing to win.
Jeff,
So eloquently stated. This is a victory for mankind in its constant struggle to be better and rid itself of its darkest impulses. God bless Iraq and those soldiers of freedom who have struggled and sacrifice to bring us this episode of hope.
That is a nice sentiment, Jeff, but I fear it will never happen. To “reconsider” implies an original act of consideration, i.e. an act of thought, an act of reason. But those on the far left abandoned reason long ago, and are now dominated by their emotions, predominantly by a hatred of America and capitalism and an overwhelming hostility towards anyone who questions their position.
Rationalization, not reason, is what they use. Rationalization is the process of finding some sort of intellectual justification or cover for emotions so ugly they dare not inquire into their source. Thus, they seek out and latch onto any semi-plausible, semi-intelligible assertion or slogan that seems to justify their hatred and anger. “Bush lied, thousands died”, “No blood for oil”, “War never solved anything”, “America and Bush are the biggest terrorists”… these may be false, but they make for a nice chant at rallies.
Some similar mantra will be forthcoming regarding Hussein’s death, something along the lines of, “We have lowered ourselves to his level” or some similar nonsense.
Nicely said, Jeff. However, I can’t see Iraq as it is presently constituted becoming democratic in any normal sense of the word. The ugly truth is that islam and democracy are about as compatible as Rosie O’Donnell and Tom Cruise. I suppose it’s possible that Iraq might attempt to follow the Turkish model, but I just don’t see that happening.
To me, the only thing we can do is to get serious about the “insurgency,” and unleash the total power of our military might on the bad actors, which would include Mookie, clean out the scum, and leave. And keep our fingers crossed.
Well said, Jeff.
They’re starting to round up the squirrels.
My feelings about the public execution are a little less mixed than yours but I can still appreciate excellent writing when I see it. Linked from Saddam Hussein is still dead.
Thank you, Jeff.
Those who bore witness to what the Tyrant did are not forgotten. May they sleep better without the threat of him or his return.
Bravo.
See Provocateur’s comments on the Hussein execution:
http://provocateurjim.blogspot.com/
Bravo, Jeff! Very well done.
…And this is why I’m glad to see JG back….
Wonderful bit of partisan claptrap. At least Reagan’s and Bush41’s history of “containment” has come to an end.
1. When is Michelle Malkin going to Baghdad, as promised?
2. When is she going to apologize for that phony John Kerry story she was spreading a few days ago?
It is a great start to a soon to be New Year.
Saddam is dead. Jeff is alive and pounding away on the keyboard again.
Good stuff!
Accolades & I’m drinking my fill of your koolaid here as well, Jeff.
* “The gift of our New Year is the murder of Saddam Hussein. If you want to share the Iraqi people’s happiness for the death of Saddam, raise your voice and your hands.”
And chants of ‘Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead..’
Sorry, actually the quote is “Now there’s peace, Saddam is dead”
Peace, huh? Not exactly. A realization by the majority of Humanity that Hussein (or Stalin, or Hitler, or Pol Pot, or whoever) is truly a murderous dictator is never enough for another fragment of humanity who has lost a hero. Saddam Hussein will be avenged…by someone, in a never ending cycle of vengence and revengence. That, my friend, is the human way.
summer82 Now those were Reagan Years…the Sun was brighter in those days…
In addition to the moral morons aka KosKiddies, we have the Ass. Press captioning their photos on the Yahoo slide show and writing the lead paragraph of their coverage of the execution:
Not justice, only vengence.
Nice way to editorialize in “news” coverage.
How clueless is Smith?
Hey Smith- check out this latest news update;
Saddam is still dead!!!
You know, words mean things and what happened to Saddam was not murder. Period.
Lonely, I’m Mr. Lonely
By Michelle Malkin · December 27, 2006 11:44 AM
***see update here on questions about the photos***
I linked to this photo of lonely John Kerry spurned by the troops in Iraq last night via Power Line, but the photo is going viral and it’s worth re-posting as a stand-alone
Yes, “questions”. Yes, anyone can rehash the “news”, even if you have to make it up, like Michelle Malkin.
Trust that all going on about the hanging of Saddam are not among the almost 3000 families who have lost someone, or the 20,000 wounded and maimed. Like Michelle Malkin, of the bear no burden, pay no price crowd. Including the Republican wartime tax cuts.
Doesn’t stop that fool from making up the “news” about John Kerry, someone who did get directly involved in “containment”.
No, Malkin doesn’t apologize for her repeated mistakes and lies. That’s for the dreaded “MSM”. What a joke. But she liked your piece enough to feature it.
What on earth are you talking about? What part of that story wasn’t true? If you mean the prattling by the usual suspects about the pic being fake, that was thoroughly debunked days ago. But you guys never let the facts get in the way of your lunatic world-view.
Craig, don’t bother. The idjit is probably perfectly aware of the big, gaping hole in the story. It just doesn’t care. It’s the “truthiness” that matters.
I’m sorry Michael, but you seem to be under the mistaken impression that this is Michelle Malkins blog. It isn’t. However, I’m sure if you search the tubes long enough, you’ll come across it eventually.
Nice post Jeff. I’m mostly against the death penalty, but in this case not so much.
All in all, not a bad way to end the year. Good riddance.
I choked on the word vengeful also Darleen.
When did Jeff become responsible for what Malkin posts? I’ve been reading PW for about 3 years and don’t recall the news that Jeff was appointed overlord of all con blogs.
TW rather42….too easy.
When did moonbats care who was actually responsible for something? It’s THEIR feelings that count, not your stupid facts!
To view a sarcastic visual of George Bush playing a round of “Hangman”…link here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
Anyway, to the press corps that refers to Saddam’s execution as a murder, an assassination, and to the loonies who are crying in their (haram) beers over his end, all I can really say is, suck it up, boys and girls, there are other dictators and mass-murderers who need your support!
Smith obviously doesn’t read Powerline… otherwise he’d have realized that the “Kerry photo faked” story has been thorougly debunked.
Oh well… low-hanging fruit and all that… swing away.
Sorry Jeff… didn’t mean to pimp somebody else’s blog in your webspace.
You must remember that news is merely the vehicle for the message.
Anyone can report the facts, its lessons we are after.
Lessons, baby, lessons.
Jeff, there’s a difference between disagreeing with someone and losing respect for them. I lost respect for you around the time of your “more dumb bombs” statements when you refused to acknowledge that what you were calling for was more killing.
Now, you continue to advocate for death, albeit in mushy language:
“military strategy that has been too introspective and politically circumspect”
The criticism is obvious: weak-kneed politicians were unable to muster the will to kill; hence the sectarian violence we’re unable to control.
I wish you’d’ve just come out and admitted that you wanted more killin’ done out on highway 61. Then you could celebrate Saddam’s execution in style.
PS Hey Pablo: this is your cue.
I believe that when you follow the indicated link, Darleen, you will find Iraqis living in Dearborn, Michigan, who probably do not have complete control of the nuances of our language, just yet. Murder means, to them, dead, and that’s why they were celebrating.
(I personally raised a proper shot of tequila in honor of Hussein’s passing…)
I never had much respect for you, beetroot, because you seldom if ever treated me with anything but disdain.
And re-reading those posts you refer to again today before linking them here, my conscience is perfectly clear that they meant exactly what I said they meant.
You and your brethren can keep rehearsing your claims that all I want for New Years is a bunch more dead Iraqis. This is nonsense.
However, I do think that a military that isn’t hamstrung by its legal branch (sorry, Major John) would be a more effective and efficient fighting force, and would perhaps, in certain situations, end up saving lives in the long term by acting less tentatively in the short term.
That I believe that tentativeness comes from the political calculus shaped by a hermeneutic culture that allows interpreters to control meaning-making is perfectly consistent with my other thoughts on these types of issues.
We are—and remain—too afraid of how others might see our actions out of context, and this can potentially create the kind of indecision or weak action that ends up costing lives. It breeds wafflers and opportunists and a poisoned political culture.
I hardly see why that is so hard to understand, nor do I find it to be all that provocative a sentiment.
oh hey, here’s somebody else for more killin‘. I guess it’s becuase “killing” implies thoughtlessness or no reasoning, that it bothers me you prefer that term. Then again, that’s what our troops are trained to do, “kill people, break stuff”, it would be nice if we would let them do their jobs unhindered. I’ve yet to meet a person that likes being micromanaged.
Thanks, Maggie. I’ll add a link to that in the post.
beetroot lives in a world in which there is no one inside Iraq who deserves “more killing”. The thing is, there are people in Iraq who need to be killed, because they won’t stop their own murderous ways any other way. Perhaps he has found a way to make the actions of those individuals the fault of the US as well.
But hey, you can feel how much he CARES, so he must be right.
Trust what, Michael? Your word? How many of those maimed, wounded, and families of lost men and women see the execution of Saddam Hussein by a sovereign Iraqi government as the ultimate expression of their mission having been accomplished?
You simply don’t get it and you never will. But you cannot and do not speak for those who do and/or did, or their families.
beetroot, I’d kick ya, but Jeff didn’t leave much. So, unless you’ve got a special request, I’ll have to take a rain check for your next drive-by.
Incidentally, I just realized that beetroot put quotation marks around “more dumb bombs,” indicating that I wrote something to that effect.
Again, this is historical revisionism. I invite you to reread the posts.
Where are the WMD’s? Saddam must have known. We should not have allowed his execution until he told us what happened to them.
By what authority do you suggest that we should have overridden Iraq’s justice system, david?
We’ve got those Muslims on the run now, boy!
We should start seeing that bounce in the President’s numbers any day, once those “dead-ender” Demoncrats finally realize that guys like Jeff were right all along. About everything.
It’s good to live in Bizarro World.
Permit me to disavow the words of the other Michael Smith—I’ve added my middle initial to keep us seperate—and put me squarely in the camp of those who advocate “more killin”, or, to be more precise, count me among those who favor letting our military function as a military and not as a domestic police force under the control of a foreign government.
No, actually, they’re quite busy killing each other. But thanks for playing, nimrod.
“We should start seeing that bounce in the President’s numbers any day”
I know that it is difficult for you to grasp, but follow me here. True leaders are less concerned with their numbers and perceptions than with doing the right thing. Anyone can snark, but for many, like you, that’s all they can manage. On the upside though, it must be a buzz to flaunt your virtue and sensitivity.
Michael, I believe you’re mistaken. Bear no burden, pay no price? I think not.
Beetroot, Pope Ratzo, Michael Smith,
I appreciate your support, but it comes just a little too late.
“…has made Iraq a far better place, if only for the moment potentially.”
GodDAMN that’s some batshit crazy stuff! Straight up! Woot!
Ignore Pope Ratzo. He thinks we’re all rah-rah boys incapable of independent thought, and so he’s trotted out the football cliches to speak (ironically) to the Jesusland crowd, in order, he hopes, that he might exhibit both his moral superiority and his military and foreign policy erudition—without having to actually exhibit either. It’s all implied, you see. From the tone.
Go ahead, Ratzo. Slap the hood of that rhetorical cab and let the Rethugs know that you’re walkin‘ here!
As for Milo, I suspect he came over from Pajamas Media, where that particular bit is excerpted. Do I doubt he read the entire post? Of course. He doesn’t have time, what with all the running around he has to do today to remind us warmongering chickenhawks how we’ve all caught teh CRAZY! W00t!
Well stated Jeff.
None the less, the man had many opportunities to avoid this. Jr. couldn’t have made it more clear another “storm” was comming without giving a day, time and method, simply comply with the U.N. resolutions, then again the U.N. (among others) were sending him mixed messages by enacting resolutions then conducting back door business circumventing said resolutions. Hence there’s no fool like an old fool, and now he’s a dead fool. In the end it’s just another death caused by the U.N. Oil For Food program.
Sic Semper Tyrannis
Ah, how vindicated we all must feel. Three thousand dead Americans, 400,000-plus dead Iraqis, three hundred billion dollars spent, the rest of the world left unprotected while we’re over-extended, Osama still alive, bankrupted national prestige, lost moral high ground, but so the hell what? We got that Saddam, by gawd. Hey, if that’s the bargain utter fools like Jeff want for improvements in the state of the world, give me one hundred billion dollars, two thousand honest American soldiers you don’t mind seeing dead, and I guarantee you the trophy ears of every member of the ruling junta of Burma by 2009. Next up, I’ll sell you a shiny marble for $300,000.
“Doesn’t stop that fool from making up the “news†about John Kerry, someone who did get directly involved in “containmentâ€Â.”
– Yes. He did a masterful job of “containing” that dishonorable discharge alright.
– BTW. The three civilian contractors got up and moved as soon as they recognized who they were siting with. If the picture had been taken 2 minutes later, even they would have been gone. There was a time when the usual “big lie” meme would have worked. That is no longer the case. Lament O’ yee “revolutionaries”, the end of your bullshit cult movement is nie.
could some of you new folks come to an agreement on your numbers? or at least cite your sources? I’ve seen many of you using 3000 for a few weeks now. last I checked there were 2998 U.S. fatalities (Dec 30, 2006). I know, I know, what’s a couple of soldiers when there’s a point to be made. It’s because you care, I’m sure.
Simon doesn’t really answer John Cole et al; he just attacks their alleged motives (“[t]hey may even have been blinded by a form of narcissism, by wanting to be considered ‘good’”), while setting himself up as the moral yet sensible pragmatist in contrast. While I’m not a capital punishment absolutist myself, maybe, just maybe, Cole is guided by his actual moral concerns rather than narcissism.
So you’d be ok if we were elsewhere, just not Iraq?
Right.
Yeah, yeah… all the usual shit about national prestige, a moral high ground, and those ever so politically useful dead people.
So much for caring about killing people.
I expected the usual amount of lefty rhetoric, but dang, judging from some of the commentary they really are saddened that the old coot got his neck stretched.
Beetroot claimed:
…and I’m sure you have a nice link to Jeff’s article proclaiming such. Right?
Going from memory, ISTR the ones wailing about such things were folk like you. I believe the actual term used was “carpet-bombing whole villages” or similar. I guess you’re backing away from that slightly by now claiming it was “more dumb bombs” instead.
So… link, please?
I was surprised that Saddam’s sentence was carried out as quickly as it was. No 50+ years of appeals, like we have here in the states. My commendations to the Iraqi people for their swift and decisive action; let’s hope the population can coalesce and rebuild their society.
That trial was a shameful joke, but I think the Iraqi people prevailed by willfully scrubbing away a lingering national stain. This gives me some hope for their wide-open future. Irock on, party people!
Oh, wait, that’s what djangone would have said in 1945. Because that effort wasn’t worth it either.
A little at a time
Neither. Juan Cole has made a career out of going to the Middle East, being wined and dined by the Ba’ath, Arabists, dictators, strongmen, and their hangers-on, then coming back and preening pridefully about his deep knowledge of the Middle East. If you took a generalized “human being” model and subtracted everything that makes a Michael Totten, what you’d have left is Prof. Cole.
Cole is merely apprehensive that one of his old drinking buddies went under—“apprehensive” because he’s subtly afraid that someone might overgeneralize.
Regards,
Ric
Obituary to a Death Foretold
A Yankee Hollywood Production
Surreally invades a Country
Overthrows a Govt using
Military Might, pulverizing aerially
All things on Baghdad & its neighbourhood
Then a hastily arranged
Script read by a Puppet on a string
Govt that has no mandate
Now today they hang the one
Who cud have said the whole truth
Nothing but the truth, so help us God..
A country now divided Shiite Sunni
Kurd, and various other crank crackpots
From SadrCity to Njjaf nothing is holy
Scalp of a Nation driven insane
By Allah’s imagination
Or is Georges ‘WMD’ invasion
Can’t say bloody hell
Anarchy is loosened..
Idealism, Corny Capitalism has emphasized
Moral Values, right wing Xian Knights
Of Templar Orientas
Had vision of capturing
Ideals such as this
spreading Democracy
and its principles of
a dumb Super Power Autisms
Or fake sense of Bushism..
No this is not Buddhism
Which we applauded when
They destroyed the Taliban
Who destroyed the Bamiyan Buddhist Relic?
My ole Iraqi Friend Hassan Al Araji
Left his homeland in 1987
To study in London kept failing
For fear of being sent back
Even today in London he hangs around
Thinks he cant be home forever
Chaos runs the destiny
Of an ancient civilization.
A hanging that happened to happen
Only in Medieval times
When Kings and Queers and Queens
Subjected their Land to Monarchial
Justice to summary executions
In which the bewildered nation hangs its
Head on shame…
No Dictator in recent times
Has been made to pay
for his crimes at large
the reason being
the worlds Policeman Democracy
Has at one time or the other
Aided and abetted this dictator
to do the vilest thing
Remember this, the policy is simple
You are either with us
Or
At least that sonfabitch is with us
Who cares if he murders his people?
Destroys lives and silences dissent
In his backyard, he stands up against
Our perceived enemies..
Isnt that what Blair and Bush does & did
Juan Cole and John Cole are different people, idiot.
There isn’t even one honest American soldier I wouldn’t mind seeing dead. That being said, if I thought you were being remotely honest I know damned well I could find two thousand honest American soldiers who would be willing to take the risk. They don’t take ears, though, despite your calumnies. If they did, yours would be first.
But of course you’re a damned liar, like the rest of your (ha!) ilk. At the very best, you’d leave them in the lurch at the crunch, like your great hero John Kennedy did, and spend the rest of the money buying more innercity serfs to kiss your ass.
Regards,
Ric
It seems we can thank Atrios for this latest troll infestation.
For a fake, but accurate pic of ol’ Duncan, see this.
So they are.
OT as it may be, I stand by my characterization of the Professor.
John Cole may, in fact, be writing from conviction. Like “Indain rope trick” the result of his conviction is “fuck the victims, I wanna feel good here.” There is no doubt innocent people get executed; as Steve H. points out, anybody over 40 who never got a traffic ticket that wasn’t deserved doesn’t drive. But if you don’t understand why Saddam needed to die, you belong in Hell with him and the rest of his apologists.
Regards,
Ric
You wouldn’t last a week in Burma, you conceited little prick.
Truly, Ric Locke, you are being melodramatic. Who are these “apologists?” You appear to be falling into the convenient trap of equating those who are opposed to this war with Saddam’s pep squad. A stretch, and unfair.
We encouraged coups against him, bombed targets where we thought he was (several times, over several decades), many advocated we assassinate him rather than go to war, and finally we sent military troops against him. So why is his death sentence and execution so morally challenging?
Iraq – and the Arab world in general- isn’t against the death penalty, so sparing him in some display of higher morality would have fallen on an uncaring audience. In that way, it is a bit self-congratulating to state that you are against the state-sanctioned killing of Saddam. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. We are all proud of our own opinions.
Anyway, what were the realistic options for Saddam? How many defense lawyers and judges were going to be killed in his trials, in an effort to keep him from being killed? What country was willing to imprison him forever?
Once you get over the rather bad poetry,I guess Indian was sad to see him go as well.
I don’t have an issue with killing Saddam. That is the Iraqi’s decision. Now what?
Um…the pics were real, dunce. What was all that about “lies?”
Don’t believe me. Believe the guy who took them.
Now the question is – will you apologize to Malkin for your inaccurate and false accusations against her?
I think not.
Boy – nothin gets the moonbat mob’s panties in a wad over here quite like a healthy dose of Pasty-ism!
Good to have you back, JG!
Well cynn, you could follow some of Jeff’s links. Or go nose around dailykos for a while. Or just reflect on what the people that say Iraq was safer under Saddam are actually saying.
You may not be one of them, but why pretend they aren’t out there in full view?
Unfair? Maybe, to a vanishingly small number of genuinely stupid people. Don’t believe in war? Fine. What if war believes in you?
A stretch? Nah. Statistically, it is vanishingly unlikely that there is a Shi’ia in Baghdad who doesn’t have a close relative who was killed, mutilated, or tortured at Abu Ghraib prison before the present management took over. The genocidal idiots of the Mooreon Brigade will not even permit those outrages to be discussed—if it’s brought up, the entire chorus takes up chants to the effect of how incredibly beastly the Americans were to Sunni.
You, personally, may not be among the voices beatifying the butchers and torturers as Iraqi Minutemen, Defenders of Truth, Justice, and the Iraqi Way—but there are plenty of them around, and if you’re going to echo their arguments you’d better be a little more careful to distance yourself from their lionization of the truly vile. The only reason (attention, CraigC!) Muqtada al Sadr has power is that in all the world he’s the only voice calling for sanctions against the people who murdered, mutilated, tortured, stole daughters and wives as sex slaves, and other charming behaviors. The entire international pseudoLeft absolutely shrieks that bringing those acts to an end was totally, absolutely, unquestionably wrong—and by doing so, endorses them. It may be possible to be against the war without being a member of Saddam’s cheering section, but it’s damned rare, and it’s no stretch at all to equate the one with the other.
The execution of Saddam was, in part, an attempt to convince people that we, and the Iraqi Government, are not in league with the Sunni Ba’athists, attempting to return them to power and their old ways. Absent the deification of the Ba’ath as Stalwart Defenders, and the calls for the reinstallation of Saddam as proprietor of a “well-run tyranny”, mercy, at least to the extent of life imprisonment, might have been possible. With the situation as it is, that would be seen (possibly accurately) as sending Nappy off to Elba, to return when the times called for another Man on Horseback. Michael Moore killed Saddam, with Mother Sheehan and “Pinch” Sulzberger as accessories during the fact.
Regards,
Ric
I have a feeling the hanging may have been a little rushed.
Saddam didn’t even have time to write a couple of childrens books.
Perhaps he may have learned remorse.
Perhaps he would have named some oil-for-food (*cough*Kofi*cough*) participants.
So he was hanged in december, 2007, with three fingernails, would that have been so bad?
– What is patently obvious, aside from the willingness to this day, for some of the moonbat commune to still be willing to make complete asshats of themselves, trying gamely to defend that total idiot, LurchKerry, is the instant angst they all feel with each and every “event” that seems to point toward and eventual stable situation in Iraq.
They won’t say thats their motive for sqwauking, and trying to dreg up every possible idiotarian soft Marxist “truthiness” of course, but the days of a free ride when they trot out the usual thinly disguised “Hate-America” rhetoric, are over.
Was it worth this?
“Was it worth this”?
– Wheres all your pictures of thousands of woman and children dragged out to the desert in buses, shot in the head, and burried.?
– Wheres the pictures of 5000 kurds gassed, and their bodies thrown in mass graves.?
– Where’s all the pictoral “evidence” of an entire village of men and boys he had shot, or the some half a million people, whole families in some cases that were raped and tortured by him and his loving sons during his rein of terror.?
– Or is that too much “truthiness” for a moonbat to deal with in one sitting. You are not “elites”. You are a bunch of fucking morons.
Oh, and just so there’s no mistake I shed no tears for that bastard Saddam; but I’m sorry we’ll never never now get the truth about Halabjah, nor will Saddam’s enablers in that crime ever be tried for it. This wasn’t worth the death of half a million Iraqis, thousands of Americans and other Allied fighters, the pissing away of Iraqi women’s freedom and the undermining of a half-century’s progress toward a system of international law.
feel free to elaborate on that one. I lurve “international law”
Wheres the pictures of 5000 kurds gassed, and their bodies thrown in mass graves.?
But we’ll never get that trial now, will we? and the part played by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush 41 and Reagan in that crime is buried now. They’re the ones who sold him the chemicals, gave him the money, gave him sattelite intel for targeting his chemical weapons. Most of Saddam’s victims died in the eighties, when he was America’s good friend and ally.
You pinheads think justice was done today? Was it worth the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis to get Saddam just so you can replace him with Shiite death squads who are every bit as bad, if not worse, than he was?
Bush got rid of a brutal dictator who wasn;t a threat to us and replaced him with a pack of religious fanatics allied with the Iranians.
Heckuva job Georgie…
“Oh, and just so there’s no mistake I shed no tears for that bastard Saddam;”
– Gosh….how middle class white of you. I’m impressed. (not very)
“… but I’m sorry we’ll never never now get the truth about Halabjah, nor will Saddam’s enablers in that crime ever be tried for it.”
– Wrong. nice try. His half brother, the Judge who pronounced the death sentence on that village and so many of Husseins victims over the years, along with a gaggle of other Saddam hired killers, are awating hanging until after the monthly Islamic holiday, even as you sit there trying gamely to event new anti-American screeds.
“This wasn’t worth the death of half a million Iraqis…”
– More rank unsupported hard Left bullshit, inflating the number of deaths in the war by at least a factor of ten, and why no one with any intelligence listens to your crap for more than a few minutes.
“…the pissing away of Iraqi women’s freedom..”
– You must live on a different planet chucklehead. the only freedom woman had under hussein was the freedom to submit or be raped anyway, and then killed.
“…and the undermining of a half-century’s progress toward a system of international law.”
– Translation: The underming of a half-century of subversive efforts to turn our Republic into a synchophant cult, hell bent on world wide Socialism. Fuck you and the Marx you rode in on.
– Try a little harder sport. Fisking a 7 year old is boring.
This wasn’t worth the death of half a million Iraqis, thousands of Americans and other Allied fighters, the pissing away of Iraqi women’s freedom and the undermining of a half-century’s progress toward a system of international law.
Apparently it was, as far as the Iraqi government was concerned. They’re the ones who sanctioned it.
And nice, one year old link to the Telegraph. Do you guys have to bring up stale news just to bolster your bullshit opinions? Last I looked, the Iraqi constitution was written already. Dumbass.
TV (Harry)
Amazing that some people think hanging Saddam was a bad thing…
I think these are the people you should be asking Hermit.
it’s not that it was a bad thing, it’s just that the wrong people brought it about.
“…it’s not that it was a bad thing, it’s just that the wrong people brought it about.”
– Yes. That is the point here, isn’t it Maggie. the US stood back and let the Iraqi duly elected government, accuse, convict, and hang the bastard, all by proper democratic process and law, and robbed the Left of the chance to claim we murdered one of their hero’s. that why their panties are in a bunch. They’re all scared shitless Iraq may work out after all, leaving their 6 year battle with Bush in shambles, and the prospects of “World wide” Socialism looking pretty grim.
Oh, let’s have that dish, baby! A Halabja truther, huh? Details, please.
The Soviets would be surprised to hear that.
But we’ll never get that trial now, will we?
Actually, that trial had already started and the ‘truth’ wasn’t free-flowing from Saddam. Shockingly:
and the part played by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush 41 and Reagan in that crime is buried now.
Surely someone besides Saddam can testify to this. Maybe whoever it was that leaked the knowledge to you?
I don’t know that I’d go quite that far BBH, but there’s a pretty consistent bias displayed when it comes to this administration.
Jeff,
Don’t you ever say “sorry” to me about your opinions of military strategy/tactics, etc. I didn’t sign up to enforce a modified “chickenhawk” scheme – I signed on to make sure EVERYONE, even poeple like beet and actus, et al., can be free to express their opinions.
I might even agree with you…
– Maggie, its true. Many of the “old camp” Socialists/Marxists/Communists that fled the Euro’s with the collapse of the Soviet block have set up camp in America’s institutions, busily spoon feeding this “one world” crap to the more gullible, and impressionable of our youth for decades. It’s the exact same class warfare Marxist crap that kept Stalin in power for 50 years. 100 million bodies, and 100 years of failure, and here it is again, brainwashing the youth. I think every poli-sci major in America should be required to take human psychology courses, right along with the bullshit siditionist crap their professors fill thier young heads with. The adults would save a hell of a lot of time re-educating those that fall for the propaganda, and lies. It just keeps repeating itself over and over. Total waste of time.
And I might even spell things correctly, once in a great while…
BBH, I disagree with you.
What should be required of such people is that they live in one of the places whose praises they sing—Cuba, say, or North Korea—not as professors or the like, but as taxi drivers, electricians, shopkeepers, and the like, for five years.
The survivors get tenure.
Regards,
Ric
– Ahhh Cuba….the crown jewel in the Lefts wall of shame….page 234 in the Socialist handbook of sedition; “Cueber….we shall not speak of this again…”
Hermit,
Again, too late. Now you infidels are all in love with me. Would it have killed you to send flowers while I was still breathing?
Oh and five hundred thousand dead Iraqis? Even I have to admit that the Lancets numbers are almost as reliable as L. Ron Hubbard’s theology. Besides, I killed more than that…easy, and got some style points for imaginative use of a paper shredder.
– Hey Saddam….Hows it going with that 72 year old virgin corpse…Bet she doesn’t fight you like all those bitches you and your sons had to put up with before the infidels murdered you huh…. Ungrateful Bastiches….