Hello to everyone.
I'm sitting here listening to news programs,about the impending execution of Saddam Hussein.
I feel very troubled. I know how evil he was and still is. He showed no mercy towards his people or victims he murdered and tortured,therefore he deserves no mercy, I feel. I believe this, yet is this execution right or not? Any type of death sentence is horrible, but hanging seems so barbaric, like beheading etc. I just don't feel that by doing this makes any of us right. This is just my opinion, I'm sure there are many others out there.
Yes, he is horrible and deserves harsh punishment,but is death by hanging right? I'm sure the families of the victims think so and who can blame them. Sorry this is so long, I'm just so torn, which surprises me. When he was captured I thought Great! He deserves what he gets. And he deserves no mercy, but is this sentence right or our right to make?javascript:void(0)

What do you think or feel? I'll stop now, I'm just running in circles and becoming more confused and troubled. Maybe I should have my New Years drink a few days early

Well, hope you all had a great holiday and best wishes for a Happy New Year.

Please excuse any mistakes in my post. I was typing fast and am still learning corrections. I'll improve,I hope. Thanks.

Hussein's demise will be quick and humane, unlike the death of his thousands of victims.
Hanging before dawn?
Works for me. I don't feel confused in the least.

I feel similarly confused and troubled, and am avoiding the news programmes which seem to linger over the forthcoming execution with relish.

Sorry, but good riddance . . . however, the man is getting off lightly . . . it is a quandry, the thousands he had murdered, do they gain their lives back by killing 'Suddenly Insane', I think not . . . 'tis a puzzlement . . . but, again, good riddance . . . if their is a god or gods, surely they won't bat an eyelid at his passing . . . and neither should we . . . bring on 007 . . .

One thing is interesting to consider. Since Saddam wasn't exactly a model Muslim, he might be more afraid of what lies in the hereafter for him than any trauma a mortal executioner can hand out. He subscribed to Islam's principles only as far as was beneficial to him politically or materially. Maybe the ONE decent thing we could say about bin Laden is his fervent belief in spiritual things, no matter how far out over the edge he might be, or how repugnant or dangerous those beliefs might be to other people.

I gather he was executed about 15 minutes ago.

I do not approve of capital punishment at all, however I have no sympathy for Saddam at all. He was a terrible man.

Add me to the 'confused' boat. I'm not comfortable with the death sentence as a form of punishment. That doesn't mean I sympathise with him, but in my mind a death sentence does seem rather extreme.

I read that the whole thing was filmed but journalists weren't allowed in. It will get leaked on the Internet most likely, anyway. I hope it doesn't but I don't have much faith in that. What sickens me the most is that some people really want to watch and will be happy when they do.

Fantastic news as far as I`m concerned, the only thing that would have been better was news that the first attempt failed so he had to be hanged twice. The video isn`t on the `net yet but I`ll certainly view it when it does appear, I`m sure that watching the 9-11 event,numbers of Iraqi executions and scenes of murders ordered by Saddam etc has inured me enough to violence that I`ll be able to stomach the hanging of a mass murderer.

Argh. Add me to the "confused" list . First, confused that he was even executed! Unlike the way we Americans mete out our "justice", they certainly didn't -erm- mess around in drawing this all to its final conclusion. I instinctively thought that Hussein would sit in some cell for years and years as things played out (it happens here in death row cases as a general rule). But, aside from that, it galls me that so many will consider this his "martyrdom" and such. From where I sit, grew, think and ultimately believe I say (predominately) "he got what he deserved" and I know there are any number of people across the sea who think the very same way. What "he deserved", though, will be translated much differently. I will see him as a keenly evil and disgusting human being who needed to be erased from mankind (while thinking that, bottom line, Hussein may be gone but his regimen/mindset/legacy surely didn't end with him). The many supporters of him will think he deserved to die a "martyr" and has reached some higher level of spirituality in death. Then, of course, there are those other countless thousands who are probably thinking: "Didn't I hear somewhere someone say to be 'wary of the devil you don't know yet?' - in terms of Saddam's death that only means a new version of him is certainly out there lurking somewhere and who's to say he might be even worse?. I suspect all these mixed feelings must accompany the death of any high calibre beast, though. My confusion lies in that, aside from getting the revenge we crave AND to hopefully balance out the suffering of the hordes of victims of Hussein's, I don't see what global or historic or social benefit has really happened here. Those who want to venerate the criminal will, dead or alive. Those who want to destroy all those like him will never run out of new ones to rustle up to feel that way about. Is the world a better place now? Not really. It's just one ex-dictator short in the big picture. So I'm stuck between the sides here. I'm glad one of his "sort" is out of commission for good, I really am. Has justice been served to those who were personally victimized by him in hideous ways? I hope so. Is the world any different now that he no longer breathes air with the rest of us? Unfortunately, I'm afraid I can't say that I think it is so much (aside from his having a war fought in his [ahem] honor, we're so close to 'square one' that it's really pretty tragic when it comes to overall social changes or even in terms of whether those social changes are everybody's cup of tea to begin with).
Just my opinion, though *sigh*...

I used to be against the death penalty but having moved back to South Africa and watched the violent crime here go unpunished, I have changed my views. If we had to vote I would vote to re-instate it here.
The murdering criminals place no value on the lives they take, killing for a cell phone, murdering fathers in front of their children and then leaving and taking nothing with them. It is all sensless.

Think of the suffering Sadams victims went through! In my opinion he deserves what he got. He has made a mockery of the Islamic religion (along with bin Laden).

Just my opinion.

Saddam's suffering didn't come anywhere close to being what his victims went through. Life imprisonment in a small solitary cell, would have been a better sentence in my opinion.

It all makes me feel uneasy, too. I'm not sure that they've done the right thing. He did need to be dealt with in some way, but I agree that to have left him in a cell would have been better. Now, he can be held up as a martyr or some sort of inspiration for all the kinds of people that shouldn't be given such inspiration.

I have to hold my hands up as being one not sorry to hear that he is dead. For me it would have been better had he died during the hunt for him, and his body being produced, but that wasn't to be. Saddam dead is good, execution not so good but if that is the only way of getting him dead then it is ok with me.

I'm unsure of where I stand on the whole capital punishment issue. Some people deserve a hasty trip to their Maker for sure, I just don't feel comfortable with humans deciding the when and the how.

I don't like how people are making such a big deal about Hussein... I mean, there wasn't much doubt about his fate after he was caught so many months ago. Focus needs to move on to more pressing issues, like the Janjaweed militia or the corporate role in the AIDS crisis. :|

Any room on the confused boat?

I dislike the thought of hanging as a form of execution. I'm human enough to empathise with someone waiting to be executed. I agree with Sue in that I would have preferred him to have been killed in the hunt and his body produced. I was also expecting the appeals process to be a lot more drawn out as well.

I sincerely hope that the loved ones of those he had killed feel some sense of closure now.

In the meantime, troops and civilians are still being killed in Iraq, and terrorism remains a worldwide threat.

I was also slightly surprised at the speed of the execution, I was also expecting the appeal to be more drawn out. Presumably it really wouldn't have made any difference as he was never going to be found innocent.

Hopefully the backlash from extremists will not be extensive nor prolonged.

As soon as they got the chance they killed him.

If the US had done the same with Bin Laden, the world would be different.

Umm - I didn't know the US had caught Bin Laden. Isn't he still issuing videos and audio tapes that are found lying around somewhere on the streets of Kabul?

As far as Saddam Hussein's trial and execution are concerned, there were so many serious flaws involved that even Amnesty International, an organisation that was highly critical of his regime, has issued a statement condemning the whole process. Not because they think he was innocent or shouldn't have been held accountable, but because the trial was a mockery of justice. And of course they're against the death penalty in any form.

http://news.amnesty.org/index/ENGMDE144302006

This was a great opportunity to show to the Iraqi people that there is hope for a new era, where people who are accused of crimes are treated in a fair and unbiased way, without political interference. But that did not happen. All the trial showed was "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

For me, the greatest flaw of the whole process was that his accomplices got off scot free. I mean those who supported his regime, sold him his WMDs in the first place and encouraged him to attack Iran. No wonder he had to be executed so quickly, before the whole truth might have come out.

If ever Saddam's enablers were caught and charged appropriately, it would empty out the UN building, I'm afraid. It wouldn't be pretty.

On the other hand [ not meaning to hijack the thread, but to address catamount's comment] I am mystified as to why we never put Usama bin Laden and his henchmen in custody - many years after 9/11. We have costly equiptment which can read a set of car licence plates from outer space, and countless other sophisticated electronics. Not to mention the best trained special forces units in history. I can't help but feel there was something terribly wrong about the way this 'war on terror' has been orchestrated from the beginning. Sure, Saddam was evil - but he didn't fly planes into key US buildings either. It's extremely frustrating.

The death penalty is something that I can not quite get along with, simply because I dread the idea of an innocent individual being executed (as has happened). That Saddam deserved to die is beyond doubt, but to differentiate on the question of capital punishment can not, in all conscience, be right; just my opinion.
Chained like Prometheus to a rock and given a bucket of water and half a loaf of bread each day, seems to me to be a better punishment than the rather quick death by hanging.
Humiliation is a better tactic to quench the blood thirsty ardour of the supporters of supposed 'icons'. It is quite amazing how quickly such 'lionhearted' killers distance themselves from the former 'icon' when he is shown grovelling and whimpering.
However, that is, of course, too cruel a way to protect ourselves from terrorist outrage. Should he ever be caught, then, I have no doubt that Usamy Bin Liner will be offered tea and cakes and a platform from which to enlighten us about our barbaric ways whilst his henchman continue with their enlightened killing of.....well, pretty well anything, really.

Another here who doesn't like the death penalty in any form although if it had to happen to someone, Saddam wasn't a bad one for it to happen to.

Much prefer the idea of him in a dark tiny cell for the rest of his days being thrown some water and bread every now and then.

I am at a loss when it comes to the death of Sadam Husain also ( excuse spelling please ) . MORALLY it comes down to a questionn of Right vs Wrong.

While MAINLY it is about the Right to Kill someone who is evil, and has done this ( while before death Torturing people ) BEFORE they die. Sadam was NOT Tortured in any way !

Like I say...I do not know how I feel about HIS Death ....BUT I THINK I have a microscopic feeling for against his Death. I believe this ONLY because....I SEE him as an Older man ( or thing ) who is going to Die .... and Death is the END forever for ALL of us. Not being a member of a Family who lost anyone they know TO Sudam ...means that I may be to impartial to the Killings of Sudam...especially when my Heart goes out to EVERYONE who has lost anyone to Sudam !! For them and SOME WHAT Sudam .. I do remember in my Prayers every night.

Other than Sudams age ( and a few other things ) ( for me ) ...maybe if people who have been adversly affected tell thier story here....maybe we could begin to feel different towards Sudam....or at least learn and remember some things we never thought of, when it comes to Sudam ??

I have just a small question...Do you really believe that it was Saddam Hussein that was hanged? I mean the man was known to have men made over to look exactly like him...so the wrong man being executed would not be surprising.

What is surprising is that the US was the country who actually helped Hussein come into power and even trained him in CIA tatics!

I have to say, I too am on the confused boat.



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Agnes (JTJ)

I agree, Saddam was an evil, totally disgusting human? being. I have no sympathy for him whatsoever and what's done is done. I also, would've liked to see him imprisoned in a drab cell for the rest of his days,bread & water etc. But thats not to be. Oh well, good riddance to him.
It was a fast trial,sentencing and execution. I just finished serving as a witness to an assault and battery trial that went on for over 2 years, because of all the continuations. Makes you think about the varying speeds of the wheels of justice. Oh well.

Debbie