Hung at dawn. I've never known anything like it to happen before and I wonder what the mood is in Iraq and with the troops. I've served there last year and from talking to the locals they really didn't like him but for someone to go and hang him, summat just doesn't sit right in my head with it, why do it and why hanging?Just makes the people doing it comparable to him. I dare say the Americans had a big part to play in this which annoys me because they should butt out. But..I wonder who's next to step into his shoes. Any opinions on all this?

possible lookalike?

I gather that it was the Iraq court that passed sentance and this is the standard punishment, our laws do not apply !

If they strung him by the neck and left him to dangle and choke that would not be harsh enough in my opinion, I,m not for capital punishment but he is an exception !

It's interesting that you served out there which could polarise your opinion somewhat , and yet you still don't feel comfortable with the execution.

Even though I accept that he has carried out barbaric deeds , and caused a lot of trouble worldwide.

I agree with you that I feel uneasy being part of the world at large who are condoning this execution.

Doesn't fit in with our season of good will really.

He could have been kept jailed forever and made answerable for everything he perpetrated.

He will now probably be seen as a martyr in some peoples eyes.

Also you (mistergrumpy) may know more than most of us but I have a deep mistrust of any information the USA give us , Iraq has a lot of oil. Also thus far no weapons of mass destruction have been found.

Bush,his lapdog and all the bas***ds making money out of this whole fiasco should go the same way.

The Americans worry me, Not the people but the idiots that rule them,Much like our own idiots. This hanging "deserved IMO"will just make the git a martyr, There will be some big trouble over there very soon I think. More worrying is what may happen here.
Steve.

The whole thing is a complete farce in my mind...It was supposed to be an Iraqi court and judge but it smells very american to me. Whilst I'm not saying he didn't deserve it (as he did ubelievably inhumane things) he was the only person that seemed able to keep the Iraqi's in check. They have always been a country of war-ing tribes and always will be untill they all decide they've had enough fighting and live in harmony (don't forget in the scheme of things we were the same not so long ago with the french!) Iraq is a complete mess....as long as we're there they pretty much all fight us and as soon as we leave they'll start fighting each other again until a sadam replacment comes along to scarfe them all back into line. I think we should be out but we can't very well leave the country in disarray! Besides theres too much oil there for the americans to leave! Oli.

PS.
I know very little about the situation this is only MY OPINION!

one mans terroist is an other mans freedom fighter, or in this case one mans dictator is an other mans war leader

it was very american to have him sentanced to death. is the death plenty still in place here for terason or not?

sadam kills in 20 years 3000
us + gb kill 3,000,000
who should we he hanging
and now look what a mess we made my best pal is a tank comander over there he calls the place the real hell.

The thing is, he was tried under Iraqi law and punished accordingly.

Whether we agree with it or not is neither here or there.

Hangings, beheadings, stonings and the like are not exactly uncommon in that part of the world....

Odds on the Yanks had a lot to do with influencing the trial outcome.

It's easy to find some self comfort by trying to distance ourselves from it, as it wouldn't happen in this country. Unfortunately much of the rest of the world is a savage place, always has been and most likely always will be - it's just that a lot of people in this country don't seem to ( or want to ) realise that and like to think that we can all live in peacefull harmony and eat lentils. We Brits like to think we are civillised because we don't burn witches or hunt foxes any more...wasn't so long ago though!!

JUST MY OPINION - absolutely no offence meant to anyone!!!

good riddance

if they followed on with half the scum bags over here aswell

quote:

---

Originally posted by zxrlocost
good riddance

if they followed on with half the scum bags over here aswell

---

can still fox hunt here. its not that the rest of the world ain't civilised its that they don't have the money but if they did have money we would be at the bottom of the pile. were can i see the video of it happening?

Yeah if I remember rightly it was the Iraqi's that sentenced him so I suppose thats their way. I would've rather kept him alive like some on here to avoid that martyrdom and to make him think about what he did, the hard way. Afterall, thats what we did with Myra Hindley wasn't it? The place isn't what I'd call real hell but it certainly changes your look on things and people. I still think the Americans are far too involved and bring trouble just by their presence and thats from my experiences. I'm glad to see that no ones critisizing others opinions though as I really do think that everybodies' opinions count in matters like this. I'm just a big hippy at heart But a little Hitler at work wit the chavs!
Erm, I though fox hunting was banned and thus you can't do it?

[Edited on 30/12/06 by mistergrumpy]

you can no longer hunt foxes with hounds.
You can still go out and shoot them with a bally great gun though

no in n.ireland we can still hunt with hounds, not that i care because i don't fox hunt but my aunt does

It's ironic that he was executed due to laws that he imposed himself, almost 40 years ago!

I'm quite mixed about it.....

I'm glad it's over. I've been waiting for a plane load of hijacked hostages to be used as a bargaining tool for his release. Now he's gone that's not gonna happen (not for his release anyhow). IMHO it was right but there will be repercussions no doubt.

As already stated - he did nasty things to his fellowmen. However, he will be treated as a martyr, the US Troops will be target practise and we will suffer repercussions.

& it also rests very uneasy with me too... lets face it at least 3 prosecuting lawyers were killed during his trial. Nothing to do with him?

Personally speaking - hanging is too quick, he should have been used as a lab rat for terminal diseases.

Steve

what ever happened to all those saddam look alikes??? there were loads, saw a film of them at the beach looked like ten at least...

All been hung by mistake? Remember the amount of paediatric staff and podiatrists(big words, hope they're right) getting battered when that newspaper (daily mirror?) printed paedophile names.

Well FWIW I think the whole trial was a waste of time because the outcome was pre-determined. When the American's first found him they should have just left him in his hole in the ground and rolled in a couple of grenades - would have saved a lot of time and expense...

Don't get me wrong here though, I agree 100% that America (or the American Govt anyway) have grown way too big for their boots and Britain needs a much stronger government to keep them in check. I hope things will improve once Bush Jnr has left office as I can't remember feeling as uneasy when Clinton, Bush Snr or Reagan were in power. I can only imagine how much the Iraqi's must hate Bush when people in the western world and even his own country think he is nothing but an egotistical thug.

Craig.

BBC news item puts a lot of it into perspective. Sadam was looked on as an ally at one time.

The speed at which the sentence was passed and carried out was quite surprising, but the court did say he would hang before the new year after passing sentence. I think death sentence was inevitable as he was tried under Iraqi law and preferable to imprisonment. As someone has already posted, if he was in a cell, there will always be followers using extreme measures to try and get him released.

Fact is, he was a very bad man, capable of unspeakable evil, even within his own family, but the fear he created within Iraq had the effect of keeping the warring tribes in check to an extent.

As for our (allied forces) part in this. While the UN inspectors were allowed in (early 90's) they did find WMD in the form of tons of Anthrax, nerve gas, and stockpiled missiles. They were hauling hundreds of missiles out of the river where they had been hidden. It was around this time that Saddam appeared at a summit showing off components he was smuggling into his country to build up a nuclear weapons program.
Make no mistake, the guy had an agenda, he wanted nuclear weapons and he would have got them if he was left to his own devices.
You think the crackpot in N Korea is a concern, Iraq under Saddams rule would unleash nukes without hesitation.

Just spare a thought for the troops out there that will have to deal with the backlash.

John

just seen the video on the net.

glad hes dead, no chance of any rescue attemp, bargaining people for his release etc......

I think the death sentance should be brought back here for thise that commit the worst of crimes. serial killers/rapists etc, when they are convicted with no dought in anyones mind.
then execution, saves money and time keeping them in prison for years at the taxpayers expence, just my opinion....

Yeas but the fact is that, and I work for our esteemed police service!, they don't always get it right in fact more than 'not always'. Even when they think they have someone, as you rightly say 'without a doubt', there have been times when it turns out down the years that they were wrong and mostly down to little things and I think that that is the reason why we could never have capital punishment here. Ship them all to an island and let them sustain themselves or self sustainable prison ships.

Yes it is a tricky one isn't it. Mistakes do happen.
Maybe the convict should be given the choice of whether they serve life or end it? The only down side of this would be someone who is so distraught at being wrongly convicted that they see it as a way out. Maybe the convict and two members of family could decide?

One thing I am certain about is that our prison system is too easy on hardened criminals and too hard on those who arguably shouldn't be in prison to begin with. To my mind prison should be somewhere that you go to redeem yourself, not to "network" with fellow criminals and plan your next big robbery!

Also, Prison's should place zero burden on tax payers by making the prisoners pay their way through an honest day's work. I'm not saying that this is easy to implement but it would be worth it I think. Another option would be to use the assets taken from criminals to pay for the running of the prisons.

Cheers,
Craig.

im late to the party as ever, been on holiday.

Whilst you cant deny saddams evil, one would be very naive to think he is that much worse than numerous world leaders (and indeed commoners) that will never face justice. Saddam attacked Iran because he feared the rise of the Shi'ites following the revolution. He was regarded as a more reformist leader back then, introducing stuff like free school places, distributing land to peasants and making iraq the only country in the region NOT judged by islamic courts and sharia. Hence its easy to see why Bush Snr would support him against the Iranians. Cant remember how it all ended, but once the dust settled his country was very poor ($75 billion of war debt). He then invaded Kuwait because he believed they owed him for 'defending' them from Iran. Kuwait is about 20 times richer than iraq in terms of oil reserves per head. That was an unfortunate move as it put him squarely against his old allies. The rest is history i guess.

With a little research i could find details of hundreds of inhumane acts in recent history, and probably a good portion of them perpetrated by Western nations. Of the top of my head, how about the English treatment of the irish just a few centries ago (im no historian but potatoes come to mind) or the americans giving the native indians disease ridden blankets (smallpox?). Now Saddam went beyond these acts, ie butchering a minister and sending the pieces back to his wife etc, but there seems to be a disparity in both world opinion and actions. The court he faced was a kangaroo court. Im quite annoyed he faced such a pathetic set of charges compared to his more serious crimes - maybe the crimes he was convicted of were just the easy ones to prove etc, but it would've been more satisfying if he had had to answer for the chemical attacks on Halabja etc.

Still, time marches on. Theres not much point moaning about anything in particular nowadays because everything is wrong, where ever you look. Just thought id drivel on for a while.