Many Oppose Death Penalty for Hussein

[ckramer]

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Nov. 6 — European politicians on Monday spoke out against the death sentence for Saddam Hussein. Arab officials and commentators derided what they said was a flawed and politicized trial, while for the first time broadly acknowledging Mr. Hussein’s crimes.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, speaking to reporters on Monday, said he opposed the death penalty for Mr. Hussein, joining several other European leaders and European Union officials who announced their opposition to the sentence. When pressed by reporters, Mr. Blair spoke of his longstanding opposition to capital punishment. He said he did not intend to protest the sentence, and condemned Mr. Hussein’s brutality.

European leaders insisted that the viciousness of the actions of which Mr. Hussein was found guilty had not changed their view that state-sponsored killing was wrong. Some warned that executing Mr. Hussein would only worsen the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/world/middleeast/07saddam.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1162873351-USZjvo9oKCsJMFrO56N3Tg

[MethuenProgressive]

1. Why aren't we waterboarding him in Gitmo??

We're torturing illiterate peasants in secret prisons to find out who gave the $5, 30 bullets, and a Kalisnakov 4 years ago - but we gave Saddam up to a kangaroo court in the Green Zone?? What a way to run a war...

[az chela]

2. Since Saddam isnt as bad as bush I dont think it is any of our

business how the iraqi's handle their government ,we should be more interested in
what happens to bush for all the death he has caused.

[liberalsoldier5]

3. saddam isn't as bad as bush?

I don't think so. I'm as pro-liberal as the next guy (I've volunteered so f'n much for my local party this fall that my grades are on thin ice), but that is just not true. If it were, we'd all be dead right now for the amount of dissent we've spewed over the past six years. Bush still hasn't gassed Vermont or San Francisco. No limbs of American citizens have been chopped off and delivered to the White House. There's no torture chambers or rape rooms in our country. Bush is an f'n disaster, no doubt about it. But worse than Saddam? C'mon. Despite being governed by a kindergarten classroom of a congress, one of the few things we can still be thankful for is that Bush is NOT as bad as guys like Saddam.

[LynnTheDem]

6. How many execution warrants has bush signed? More than Hussein

was charged with.

How many Iraqis has bush killed?

More than Hussein.

How many Americans has bush killed in Iraq?

More than al Qaeda killed on 911.

Facts.

[liberalsoldier5]

9. How many people has Bush had killed for dissent of your nature?

None. There's your difference. I HATE to sound like some fat republican assbag, but when you argue that Saddam Hussein is less evil than Bush, you need to be criticized. Wake up and be happy you're living where you're living, under that government that you're (especially now) living under. When Bush sends American troops to chop off our limbs for dissent, then I might buy your argument.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. "...Bush is NOT as bad as guys like Saddam."

I think there are a couple hundred thousand Iraqis who might feel differently.

We have bombed, tortured, raped, kidnapped, and used chemical weapons on Iraqis -- exactly like Saddam Hussein. And there was also that whole invading of a sovereign nation thing, too.

Just because it is happening to Iraqis instead of Americans, doesn't make it any less disgusting and criminal. If there was any justice in the world, Bush and Saddam both would be in the Hague on charges of crimes against humanity.

[liberalsoldier5]

8. But we didn't slaughter Iraqi families

ON PURPOSE. Saddam did. Stick to facts, not wild dreams that say nobody is worse than Bush. Don't get me wrong, I think Bush is a horrible virus in the great land of DC, but the dope hasn't INTENTIONALLY had innocent people raped and killed.

Oh yeah, and if you or I dissented as much as we do here in Saddam's Iraq, we'd be dead. Sorry to be so blunt but the only thing I hate more than fake patriots (ie: conservatives) is unappreciation of the good things one has, like freedom from tyranny.

[oblivious]

10. "There's no torture chambers or rape rooms in our country."

But as long as you run them in other countries it's ok then?

[Judi Lynn]

4. We need to repair our government so another murderous sociopath

won't be able to steal his way into the Presidency.

The lives he has destroyed for his dirty lies are gone forever, and the lives of families and loved ones of those slaughtered are devastated. People are suffering here, in secret torture camps, Iraq, and in the countries he pressured into sending cannon fodder to his bloodbath.

He also overturned the election of the Haitian people and drove out their beloved President. God only knows how many lives were lost in Haiti because of this murderous mischief and intimidation.

There's not one good thing a sane person could say about our own war criminal. We need our government to be safe enough to keep another ugly, twisted, murderous brat, with a monstrous circle of advisors, from seizing control of our country again.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Many Oppose Death Penalty, Period. -nt

[Ferret Annica]

11. Capital punishment is wrong, period

I am absolutely against killing this man or any other human being who is incarcerated.

[Bush_MUST_Go]

12. Many oppose the sentence. Many don't. It's the Iraqi's choice, not anyone elses.

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NYC Liberal]

14. Okay but "The Iraqis" did not choose anything here.

[MadHound]

17. The trouble is whether or not this is truly "the Iraqis' choice?"

Frankly I think that this whole business has the unseen hand of the US behind it. Witness the fact of the change in judges, when the first was becoming too "sympathetic" to Hussein's plight. Witness that all of these members of the judicial branch, prosecutors, judges, defense attornies, all were set into their position by the US occupying forces. In fact the entire Iraqi government was set into place by the US, and is considered by most Iraqis to be an illegal, immoral, sham of a puppet government operating in the interests of US power, and propped up by US might.

Thus the large looming eight hundred pound gorilla of a question in that courtroom is whether or not this is a legitimate court, or simply a kangaroo court doing the bidding of the US occupying forces.

Frankly I think that any verdict concerning Saddam would, at this point, have a lot more legitimacy coming from the International Criminal Court.

Also, I believe that it is wrong for any state to give out the death penalty.

[Orsino]

15. Yep.

There is no need, other than our own sick impulses, to be any less than humane toward him.

Killing him for being a political enemy is just following his example.

[goclark]

19. CP is wrong ~ if it's wrong here it wrong everywhere in my view

It's W R O N G

[slackmaster]

16. Count me among them

Executing him would make him a martyr.

(I oppose the DP in general.)

[stepnw1f]

18. That's the Biggie Right There....

It's a stupid solution... I'd rather make him an example and place him in jail for life.

[MasonJar]

20. Personally I am against the death penalty and if I were not, I think

Sadaam belonged in the international court. The Bushites were undoubtedly afraid of what he might say about them in an international forum.