So shouted Saddam Hussein as the sentence of death by hanging was announced in the Iraqi court yesterday morning. But will his execution lead to more unrest in the country he led for almost a quarter of a century?
This trial related to an incident that happened in 1982, when he ordered his forces to capture, torture and kill the residents of a village where an assassination attempt had taken place. Should Hussein face trial for his myriad other crimes before taking the punishment for the first? Does he want to be a martyr?
What should be done with this mass murderer?
Also - will his execution appear on Pay Per View for our American cousins?
posted
I'd feel more comfortable if he was going to have life in prison rather than be killed, but that's probably just because he's been a fixture on the TV for the last 15 years or so. Ideally, he should come over here and do the chat show rounds, before going out with a Big Brother runner up. Then do some ads for a supermarket and fall into relative obscurity presenting a channel 5 lifestyle show.
However, if that's not available, then life in prison. I'm not really down with executions. Seems a bit savage.
[ 06.11.2006, 06:40: Message edited by: Jimmy Big Nuts ]
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posted
...or he could be made to pose for computer drawing classes, with fruit balanced on his head, thus improving still-life skills and portraiture techniques at the same time.
He could do this as part of a national school tour, and would be a practical addition to modern History classes, as well as conversational practice in MFL departments. At dinner times he would help out in the kitchens, next to Jamie Oliver, and the BTEC Hairdressing students could get to work on his hair and beard as well.
In the mornings and after school he could also do lollipop road-crossing duties.
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quote:Originally posted by Louche: Hazel Blears wrote to me on Saturday.
My mum called me on sunday. Turns out that both her and my dad have got colds at the moment. And my mum is having problems with her email, and thinks that she should learn how to use computers, even though she doesn't want to because she stares at a screen all day anyway.
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posted
I went for a short walk with MiniGree yesterday evening as dusk turned to night, just down to the tennis courts and then up over the fields and back home. Nothing remarkable happened on the way.
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posted
sounds lovely, mart! Last night I cooked a leek and potato soup, and even though I was concerned about the noise the blender was making, it all turned out okay in the end.
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posted
What make of blender is it, BigNuts? I've read some very positive reviews of the new range from Kenwood, if you're interested.
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posted
I went to the local JD Wetherspoons for lunch yesterday. The Earl of Rochester I think it is called. Home to such colourful local characters as 'The Don' and 'Granny Nora'.
Knowing from previous experience that their Sunday roasts are of mammoth proportions we took tupperware and smuggled the leftovers out with us. Class.
That is in fact all I did yesterday. Unless you count lying on the sofa watching Fargo, waiting until we had digested enough to eat the rest of lunch. It was great.
posted
That's a coincidence Abby - I may eat lunch in a Wetherspoons today! I wonder what's on the two meals for £5.99 offer these days...
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quote:Originally posted by Abby: Not a bad range as I recall . Predominantly old favorites such as fish and chips or sausage and mash.
Two lunches is not really in keeping with Misc-diet though is it?
They wouldn't both be for me.
Hmm, I might go for the MLB (that's a Minted Lamb Burger to those of you who are too cool for Wetherspoons), and maybe a pint of Abbot.
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quote:Originally posted by Louche: Hazel Blears wrote to me on Saturday. I am so interesting.
My grillfiend's one of these oddball mentallists that writes to people (MPs included), as though she believes that somehow her actions have an impact on the world. Recently she seems to have practically entered into a correspondence with Joanna Lumley regarding a bridge over the river Thames (I tried telling her - there already is one). Joanna Lumley sends her handwritten letters. It's wierd, like two eccentric (crackpot) women living in a stone age where communicating about projects and crazy ideas is still viable and desirable. Like they both didn't get the memo about hiding under your duvet and never doing anything. They've never met. Just write to each other with mad ideas for bridges across the Thames.
posted
If you really wanted Hussein to suffer, being incarcerated with a diet of only extra fiery Dominos Spicy Meltdown pizza would certainly do the trick. I had one of those bastards last night and by god am I suffering today.
We're talking a 9.5 on the Johnny-Cash-o-meter...
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posted
i bought new camera on friday, but jessops wouldn't price match on the memory card so am waiting for 1gig to arrive... watched you, me and dupree which was really quite great (kate hudson is a total babe. didnt realise until the movie). and the da vinci code too, for reasons i'm not sure of. it was superb. ha. no, it was total fucking shit. yesterday was bengali fireworks night in victoria park. the emperor and tiger show was really dull, seemingly aimed at retarded three year olds. the fireworks were quite good though. today is comedy. jimmy big nuts and bandy 2.0 are coming.
saddam: everyone knows that's just an impersonator
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quote:Originally posted by Thorn Davis: Recently she seems to have practically entered into a correspondence with Joanna Lumley regarding a bridge over the river Thames.
Joanna Lumley's probably doing research for a new acting role. Sounds like exactly the kind of character she would do.
If not, then you should knock out a script yourself (allow 10-15 minutes to complete the task) and then get your girlfriend to pop it in the post directly to her.
I'm picturing ITV, day after Boxing Day. Martin Clunes plays eccentric bridge architect. They probably get married at some point. Bung in a couple more eccentrics for good measure... job done.
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turbo
Gold..... What is it good for? You can't eat it, you can't smoke it, yet everybody wants it.
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Our grape vine gave us an abundant harvest, so I pureed grapes yesterday. Now I don't know what to do with them. I also changed the bed clothes. My Sundays are well exciting.
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H1ppychick
We all prisoners, chickee-baby. We all locked in.
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I walked to collect my car from where I'd left it outside my friends' house on Saturday night on my way to the fireworks display. It was a lovely sunny lunchtime. I thought I'd try a shortcut which went down the side of the municipal golf course. The pathway was narrow, steep and muddy, winding down between the trees, and I wondered if I might find myself dragged away by a lurking beast.
But I wasn't, so that was OK.
-------------------- i'm expressing my inner anguish through the majesty of song Posts: 4243
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: Hmm, I might go for the MLB (that's a Minted Lamb Burger to those of you who are too cool for Wetherspoons), and maybe a pint of Abbot.
I'd kill for a decent pint of ale. Tonight I have an RBL meeting in one of Amsterdam's faux English pubs. An English pub that does not sell ale. A travesty.
quote:Originally posted by dang65: I'm picturing ITV, day after Boxing Day. Martin Clunes plays eccentric bridge architect. They probably get married at some point. Bung in a couple more eccentrics for good measure... job done.
quote:Originally posted by Waynster: I'd kill for a decent pint of ale. Tonight I have an RBL meeting in one of Amsterdam's faux English pubs. An English pub that does not sell ale. A travesty.
That is a pretty disgusting concept.
Wetherspoons was out of everything apart from John 'not beer' Smiths and local brew, Courage. I grudgingly opted for a pint of Reading's Finest, but looking back I think a J20 would have provided a more pleasant experience.
In the end, I chose pasta and meatballs over the MLB. It could best be described as passable.
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quote:Originally posted by Waynster: I'd kill for a decent pint of ale. Tonight I have an RBL meeting in one of Amsterdam's faux English pubs. An English pub that does not sell ale. A travesty.
Sacrilege, you know there's an easy solution to your ale-less woes, you just need to get your ass on a plane and come stay with me again. Kyle's got an 'Ales of Britain' festival on at the moment, so they're rotating the ales on offer even more frequently than normal. I highly recommend the Nessie's Monster Mash Posts: 2337
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quote:Originally posted by MiscellaneousFiles: What should be done with this mass murderer?
Saddam ought to be allowed to live, obviously.
I've lost count of the number of articles I've read in the past couple of days that begin with a disclaimer about "of course Saddam deserves to hang" and then go on to argue that the war to remove him from power ought never to have happened in the first place (this deranged article by horrid tory Max Hastings is a good example).
The mentality that believes that 1. Saddam swinging from a gallows and 2. Saddam free to decree that thousands of others swing from the gallows are equally acceptable outcomes seems to me utterly unfathomable - and yet it's more or less the majority view in the UK media.
Allowing Saddam to live is pretty much the only consistent position that anyone - pro- or anti-war - can possibly maintain. There are several main reasons; mainly moral but also, I think, pragmatic.
1. No one should face the death penalty. If it's wrong in London or Leeds or Berlin or Texas, it's wrong in Baghdad. The state has a full range of sanctions against individuals of varying degrees of criminality - the option to extinguish a life as part of a legal process is a bridge too far. The worst regimes that have existed on the planet have all availed themseves of the death penalty - all the best have rejected it.
2. Saddam's regime was founded on the death penalty - whether 'judicial' or at the discretion of Baath functionaries... whether by the noose or firing squad or by stabbing, immersion in acid, feeding into a wood-chipper or mass execution at the edge of a pit. The new Iraq needs to draw a line under that - not by Saddam being the last to receive a death sentence, but by him being the first to receive a life sentence. By such means a fledgling state can transcend its bloody origins.
3. Saddam's availability as a witness - however unreliable or grandstanding - at the trials of other Baath criminals is essential. One of the great get-outs for the Nazis judged at Nuremberg was to blame everything on the deceased Fuhrer. In addition, what gets added to the legal record is as invaluable to the historian (particularly the Iraqi historian) as it is to the prosecutor.
4. Far from being a 'figurehead' to Sunni insurgents, Saddam is a standing rebuke to the validity of their cause. Without him on the scene they can trick themselves out as some sort of heroic resistance movement rather than the loyalist rump of jobless killers they actually are.
Iraq has descended into a fucking bloody mess, but those who claim that the place was 'better off' under a Mesopotamian hardman are deluded racists. Peoples pretty much everywhere in the developed or developing world thrive in a democracy, given half the chance (Germany in the second half of the 1940s had little democratic tradition to draw upon - Japan in the same era had none at all).
The question is whether we're willing to allow neighbouring states - and the 'non-state actors' that cluster around the Bin Laden/Zawahiri/Zarqawi credo - to bludgeon this particular democracy in its cradle.
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I've tried to avoid posting on this subject for a while now. There was a point when I was in danger of becoming an Iraq bore - certainly, the theatrical yawns that issued from some quarters made me feel like that.
At the same time, it seems appallingly sad if a bunch of reasonably well-educated, media-literate 20- and 30-somethings can't have a proper ruck about the most grave issue of the day without beating premature retreat into the traditional safe havens of nob jokes, what-are-you-wearing, anal sex and spastic kittens.
quote:Originally posted by ben: 2. Saddam's regime was founded on the death penalty - whether 'judicial' or at the discretion of Baath functionaries... whether by the noose or firing squad or by stabbing, immersion in acid, feeding into a wood-chipper or mass execution at the edge of a pit. The new Iraq needs to draw a line under that - not by Saddam being the last to receive a death sentence, but by him being the first to receive a life sentence. By such means a fledgling state can transcend its bloody origins.
There was a very odd quote from Blair the other day. Something like, "This death sentence is a reminder to us all of the brutality of the former regime."
I think he meant that the severity of the punishment is a reminder to us of how serious and unforgivable Saddam's crimes were... but it sounds more like such a merciless punishment is reminiscent of the old methods.
quote:Originally posted by ben: At the same time, it seems appallingly sad if a bunch of reasonably well-educated, media-literate 20- and 30-somethings can't have a proper ruck about the most grave issue of the day
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I'd kill for a decent pint of ale. Tonight I have an RBL meeting in one of Amsterdam's faux English pubs. An English pub that does not sell ale. A travesty.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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