Saddam execution a freakin' farce!

((this is a post from Josh Marshall that sums up EXACTLY how I feel about this sorry business of this gigantic orgasmic saddam execution story.))

snip

This whole endeavor, from the very start, has been about taking tawdry, cheap acts and dressing them up in a papier-mache grandeur -- phony victory celebrations, ersatz democratization, reconstruction headed up by toadies, con artists and grifters. And this is no different. Hanging Saddam is easy. It's a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion. So this execution, ironically and pathetically, becomes a stand-in for the failures, incompetence and general betrayal of country on every other front that President Bush has brought us.

big snip

These jokers are being dragged kicking and screaming to the realization that the whole thing's a mess and that they're going to be remembered for it -- defined by it -- for decades and centuries. But before we go, we can hang Saddam. Quite a bit of this was about the president's issues with his dad and the hang-ups he had about finishing Saddam off -- so before we go, we can hang the guy as some big cosmic 'So There!'

Marx might say that this was not tragedy but farce. But I think we need to get way beyond options one and two even to get close to this one -- claptrap justice meted out to the former dictator in some puffed-up act of self-justification as the country itself collapses in the hands of the occupying army.

Marty Peretz, with some sort of projection, calls any attempt to rain on this parade "prissy and finicky." Myself, I just find it embarrassing. This is what we're reduced to, what the president has reduced us to. This is the best we can do. Hang Saddam Hussein because there's nothing else this president can get right.

What do you figure this farce will look like 10, 30 or 50 years down the road? A signal of American power or weakness?

more at

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/011729.php

Hmmmm ... I am anti-death penalty, so I am certainly against killing Saddam by ANY means .... but is this murder ? .... I mean: this man most certainly killed MANY people wrongly, women and children included ..... and he SHOULD be brought to some measure of justice for that ....

I am unclear whether killing him would constitute murder .... He would be wrongly killed, because captital punishment is itself wrong ... but hey, the man DID the crimes, and he should ROT in Prison, thats for sure ....

And splashed pictures of their corpses on the front pages of American newspapers.
They didn't even get the kangaroo court charade their father got.

The US supported Saddam for many years, until we decided we wanted
his oil. Then we stole his country, and killed half a million of Iraqis.
And now we murder him to shut him up. Forever.

We brought him to justice? Not our place to do so.
And the Iraqi people are not exactly going to throw
flowers at our feet for doing away with Saddam.

And I especially balk at the $2 trillion price tag for Saddam's head.
Could have bought a lot of health care and education for American children.
And my grandchildren will paying off this debt.

don't care if the dead person was totally nasty and did a brazillion murders, still is murder.

There are some basic facts to consider ...

Both of the Hussein sons were ANIMALS ... and while we didnt have a right to execute them, its not like they offered themselves for arrest .... They battled it out like dimestore cowboys, and lost ....

And I CERTAINLY thought the parading of the images in media was absolutely barbaric ....

But you present your comments in an all or nothing mode ... you make it hard to go against the thrust of your comments by wrapping unlikely claims (The presumed innocence of the Husseins) with valid statements about the vast cost, gross barbarity and illegitimacy of it all ...

I dont consider the deaths of Husseins sons, who even the most favorable sources would admit were barbaric assholes, to be 'murder' .... There are legitimate justifications for pursuing suspected murderers like those 'boys' .... and of all the acts of aggression in this debacle, the result of their loss is the least grevious ....

But all the other statements you posted are generally true, and I agree with them ...

What do they say in congress ? ... divide the question ?

And American is acting in a way much more barbaric
than Saddam.

what he's done.

while we shouldn't have invaded Iraq to topple him, it was not because he's an innocent man, it's because it wasn't in our national interest.

I've had enough of this crap, this man is a fucking evil person. He will rank up at the top of the dictators list.

I won't be shedding tears for Saddam, nor should you.

It's not murdering him, even those like myself who despise him, yet understand that killing him is not in our national interest, don't call it that.

This has got to stop.

Saddam is not an innocent Afghani farmer, mistaken for a terrorist and sent to GITMO. There is absolutely no doubt he launched a war of aggression against Iran, killed many innocent boys and men in Dujail, and he committed absolute genocide during Anfal. Not only that, Saddam had a trial where he was given the rights of the accused.

I completely disagree with killing him, but I completely disagree with your labeling this as a murder.

Why?

Because we're manly men.

Fuck justice we have a point to prove.

Hang him high! White p... USA! USA! USA!

Pol Pot, probably our boy too, not hanged, Noriega, definately our boy, still in the joint. Why Saddam? Bush.

And there is no difference between Bush and Saddam.

America invaded their country on the pretext of morality and
democracy, which of course is a lie. We are as evil as Saddam.

facts are that the US invaded another country and murdered the leader of that country after a farce of a kangaroo court.

The blood is on all of our hands for a long time.

he should have been brought before the Hague for legitimacy. A kangaroo court obviously stacked against a defendant is not the way to serve justice.

else from these tragic Machiavellian dipshits.

and it may be even worse than a farce.

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

original post.....please. I considered doing it, but it was so full, that I didn't know which parts to copy. Everyone here should read the whole post. Thanks.

in General Discussion River Bend is back

Thanks

the problem I have is with the spectacle. Since when do we celebrate death? Don't yall find this rather macabre? At what price does his death come? How many American deaths = Saddam's death?

I read the right wing blogs daily (just a thing I do), and they are filled with testosterone, as if Saddam's death is the justification for this horrible, never-ending war.

Josh Marshall was correct....they got NOTHING right, but they will have killed Saddam. We should be so proud.

in extreme cases....can't help what I believe. But, this public masturbation of his death, compared with the American/Iraqi deaths from this war is a joke. I really don't want to get into an argument (discussion) about the death penalty....I'm just one of those who see the justification in some cases.

pens to sign a bill, so there will be enough souveniers to go around to Bubble Boy and his neocon cadre of corruption?

In addition to the media aggrandisement, what bothers me is the show the US is making of "turning it over to the Iraqi government." First of all, there is no Iraqi government. There is a puppet government that no Iraqi respects or considers a government. So the US is making a show of turning it over to a phony baloney government. Stop with the charade already.

What's important is that many Iraqis do not consider the trial fair. This is just more of the U.S. interfering in the affairs of another state.

On another topic, Josh Marshall's writing on this, in particular the first and second paragraphs posted above, sum it up so well. Thanks to writers like JM for expressing it in such colorful, vivid language.



Cher

We are becoming as crazy as he is.