Killing Saddam will only compound his "street cred"

[SoCalDem]

and make him a martyr.

the Milosevic model is the way to go. He was a brutal dictator, but when he was sent to the hague, he was reduced to the status of common criminal. he ended up a sickly, pale, pathetic loser who died alone.

He was there long enough for people who may have supported him. to see what a loser he really was..and to see how he was NOT powerful. They were able to change their hearts about him and his policies..and do it gradually, so that by the time he died, there was no reaction to speak of. he was truly just a "comma"..a nothing..

What we are about to do to Saddam, will only reinforce the division and violence. The Sunnis will see him elevated to "freedom-fighter done wrong" status.

Saudis are Sunni, even though they are a minority in Iraq. Borders there are pretty unguarded, and I suspect that Saddam's death will not go unnoticed.

The internecine violence will only escalate now, and no matter how many "surges" we send there, the result will be the opposite of what Bush claims it will be.

[AngryAmish]

1. It did wonders for Tupac

[Initech]

2. Oh definitely, the violence is going to increase from here on out.

[DrDebug]

3. On a serious note. Milosevic was much more dangerous than I thought he was

The media completely and totally ignored the Milosevic which was very sad, because you got a great insight into the man and he was no fool at all. He was extremely impressively in the court room (that's the main reason why the press stopped paying attention) with a superb mind and an incredible memory. He did not understand the court completely, however his objective with EVERY witness was to find faults and humiliate them, and he got away with it every time and he had a marvellous bullshit detector and could instantly spot a lie. It was however very clear that Milosevic was not ignorant and knew exactly what was going on where and had a perfect recollection of what happened and what he did and most importantly what he didn't do and he kept using the latter against the court. Milosevic was no fool or a loser, he was a highly intelligent dictator with a brilliant mind. That's what the press didn't tell you...

[SoCalDem]

4. I have no doubt that he was intelligent, but because he was out of the country

and off their minds, people were allowed to push past him. he became a relic of their past, and in his case, absence did not make their hearts grow fonder..

In court he may have scored a few hits, but in the end, he died there....a broken man with few, if any supporters.

His former "people" moved on..he's their past, and most probably want it to stay there..

[DrDebug]

6. For the people of Serbia it was a relief, however the story about Milosevic is not told yet

The reason why the court dragged for years until he finally kicked the bucket was because the man was an evil genius. And somehow I think that Saddam could have well been like Milosevic. There are quite a number of session with Milosevic online and they are impressive, because of he keeps on going with the witness and keeps on humaliating them. He had a complete and total contempt of court calling the judge "Mister" every time and just kept on going until he caught the witness on a lie and then he would sit back, smile and really couldn't care less about the rest of the session, because he had won.

I am curious whether Saddam was like Milosevic, because somehow I think that he would have been a similar person. I think that Cheney is like that as well.

[SoCalDem]

7. What I hate the most is that at least at the Hague, Saddam

would have surely implicated the Bushies and ragan. Since he was sarefully buttoned up by our military and our puppet regime there, all his "secrets" die with him.

anything that comes out after he's gone, will be dismissed as "nonsense".

[DrDebug]

8. Saddam would have implicated the Bushes as well

That's why Bush didn't want another Milosevic case, because that tribunal was a complete failure and they couldn't handle him. Lots of things emerged from the Yugoslavia tribunal like the fake concentration camp with the barb wire on the wrong side of the fence which was really a refugee camp which happened to have a fence on one of their fields. Things like that were a major embarassement for the propaganda.

And that is why Bush didn't want another tribunal were the witness is allowed to speak freely and which got noted down as well. In a way they already tried to limit Saddam's crimes to the bare minimum, because they tried to blame Milosevic for everything rotten and that was a big mistake because they couldn't find the matching evidence. Then again the Yugoslavia Tribunal was completely ignored especially when it lasted for many years with no end in sight.

Still think that Hussein should have gotten a real court as well even though it would have meant that some secrets would have emerged. Then again the press wouldn't have taken notice, so it's just for a select few who are interested.

[madrchsod]

5. george the lesser

ignored the balkan genocide and invaded iraq.why because there was no oil and it was european problem. then clinton was left to stop milosevic and his henchmen. his propaganda machine was only second to hitlers..