saddam hussein sentenced to hang

bruno

est malade
wrong on so many levels. done under the occupation = will be seen as illegitimate for ever and ever. done at this particular moment in time = guaranteed all out civil war. it creates a martyr. we won't be able to read his memoirs. he should have been smuggled to the french riviera, etc etc.

i suppose the americans had no choice, shunning as they do the hague, but what an incredibly stupid decision.
 
So misunderstood :p Spare the rod spoil the child.

I wonder if in some not too distant future dubya will be held accountable for his war crimes and atrocities ?
 
Not really that up on my international law, but forced democratization by one state against another is a crime, isn't it or does that only apply to any other place bar the free world ?
 

bruno

est malade
the free world has the right to impose it's will on the unfree world, it's earned the right to!

seriously though iraq is a mess, what a fucking joke. i'm sure the world is safer now. :confused:
 

swears

preppy-kei
He did a far better job of running Iraq than the US is currently. Maybe they should get him back in charge, he'd sort the insurgents out.
 

elgato

I just dont know
Not really that up on my international law, but forced democratization by one state against another is a crime, isn't it or does that only apply to any other place bar the free world ?

nah its not a crime. international criminal law is a very very young, ad hoc, and uncertain thing, and im pretty sure this doesn’t come within its remit. there are scarcely any criminal offences in international law, genocide and war crimes are more or less it... but you could build a strong argument that bush is guilty of those. problem is that its all about justifications…once there is a legal 'justification' everything changes. And the situation regarding the legality of iraq is very very ambiguous, it can be argued quite strongly either way.

also things are made very difficult because of problems in enforcement and punishment, and the fact that the operation of international law is inherently linked to politics and political power. And with the US as the lynchpin of the security council and a leading political power, I don’t see bush facing an international tribunal anytime soon!

Back to the original point, I think it’s a disgrace that saddam has been sentenced to death, never mind the utter idiocy of it. But I need to read more about it as I haven’t really engaged with the issue in depth as yet. But I was shocked to hear the decision.
 

bassnation

the abyss
and he seemed like such a nice person! *sniff*

i don't agree with the death penalty, even for scum like him. it makes me sick to see uk politicians applauding the verdict when we condemn the death penalty at home - yet more double standards of the most cynical, morally bankrupt kind. i feel the uk has sold out every ideal we ever believed in and are more than happy to endorse torture, executions, cluster bombs etc.
 

bassnation

the abyss
i havent read about any uk politicians applauding this - do you have any quotes?

beckett was on today saying its important to respect it. thats not the case when theres a brit executed abroad and its not the line i'd expect them to take given our long standing opposition to the death penalty.
 

swears

preppy-kei
I think we should bring back the death penalty for people wearing a suit jacket with a pair of jeans.

Saddam wasn't so bad really, far less people died under him than under the current occupation. We should have just let the baby have had his bottle, he'd basically killed everyone he was going to kill by the point we'd invaded.
 

gek-opel

entered apprentice
There was no conceivable way that given the make up of Iraq, Hussein was not going to be sentenced to death. The thing that irritates me is the suggestion that somehow Iraq is capable of continuing to exist as a single state WITHOUT a military dictator in control- post-Saddam the only future is fragmentation, the whole thing being an artificial post-imperialist construct anyway.
 
The coalition of the willing knew this would be the final outcome as they had counterfactualised the scenario in GW1 with GW senior.

Civil war between kurds, sunnis and shia was always on the cards. It's why GW sr stopped short of invading and occupying Iraq after 'liberating' Kuwait.

I don't have a problem with the death penalty. The dude was an evil bastard and deserves to die but by the same token so is Bush an evil bastard and deserves what he gets hopefully in the same vein.
 

swears

preppy-kei
The coalition of the willing knew this would be the final outcome as they had counterfactualised the scenario in GW1 with GW senior.

Civil war between kurds, sunnis and shia was always on the cards. It's why GW sr stopped short of invading and occupying Iraq after 'liberating' Kuwait.

Really? I thought that they were arrogant enough to assume that they'd be showered with flowers, handing out cans of coke, leading the way for the rest of the Middle East. Hoping their plan would basically work, making the Bush regime look like the great liberators putting neo-conservatism into action. It was a giant social experiment that's gone hideously wrong. I think this is one for the cock-up version of history supporters.
If anything sums up the postmodern concept of "entropy" it's the chaotic pile of shit that is post-occupation Iraq.
 

turtles

in the sea
The only use of the death penalty I support is for political leaders. I just wish it would be more widely applied :D
 
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