[Houdini]

A CNN reporter said:  Out with the old, in with the new.

Any thoughts?  I find the coverage disturbing.

[erm, sam]

I find the thought of killing the old bastard sickening. I guess when the US/UK and the Iraqi "Government" decided to try him, and hopefully get the death penalty, they thought his judicial murder would be the final underlining stroke of their victroy. As it stands it is meerly one more mindless death in a country where insane levels of murder are going on, with no likely plan for how to sort it all out. I was watching news the other day and the THOUSANDS of civilian casualites caused  by US/UK action and the many, many, HUNDREDS caused by sectarian violence are mindblowing.

[Ru]

The whole thing makes me feel uneasy.

Interestingly I was reading that under Iraq law a person over 70 years old cannot be executed, hence part of the rush to get it done before his 70th birthday in April.

However, I also read that one of his personal doctors for over 20 years had written that Saddam was almost certainly older than he said he was, as he had fabricated his official birthday. How ironic.

[widdop]

yes i feel the same ,if they had dropped a grenade in the fox hole when they found him ,that would properly have been illegal, but i would have felt easier

[Sloper]

Once the decision was taken to invade the death of Sadam, whether by bomb or 'judicial' execution, was inevitable.

As to whethr it is right or not (I've never had a  philosophical problem with capital punishment) there are two ways of looking at this, 1. the totality of his crimes vs the punishment and 2 a 'cost benefit anlysis' as to whether his execution will make things better or not.

I think that applying test one he got off lightly, as for test two only time will tell.

As for the coverage, I think they could have been more creative and put it on 'pay per view' with the option to vote as to the manner of the execution, the viewing figures would have been hugh and the vote would have probably raised a few US$ to assist with reconstruction.

[lorentz]

Re pay-per-view. As yer mad-tv-presenter-man off the original Robocop said ... "I'd buy that for a dollar!"

Been in a Cornish/work news vacuum recently and havn't seen the tv coverage; but - call me a cynical bastard (or whatever you like), but in my eyes - if it there's one good thing that's come of all this it's that one more dictator isn't going to spend the rest of his admittedly few days in relative peace and comfort in a cell or under house arrest. I thought it scandalous that Pinochet was allowed to get away with a quiet death. And when he died there were members of the uk political establishment willing to stand up on tv and say "oh he wasn't that bad, compared to some other dictators in south america at the time." Hardly the point really is it!

Saddam lived by the sword, Iraqi justice has been carried out. If it sends a message to even one of the  Robert Mugabes, the sudanese authorities or the little north korean fella from Team America (kim yong whatsisface), that the world is watching and karma and justice may just catch up on you, then it can only be a "good" thing.

As regards Hussein's execution being useful to the current situation, no doubt that it's only going to make it worse. Saddam Hussein is now a martyr to the cause against the Western occupation force, in the eyes of many Sunni muslims. I accept that it may be a propaganda doublebluff, but I heard that the uk and us were equally uneasy about the death penalty but decided that they have probably meddled enough in iraqi affairs to intercede on behalf of the man they effectively went to war against.

Talking of out with the Old, Happy New Year one and all.