Poor Saddam

[minionofmidas]

Old tyrants are not executed, they are exiled or murdered. Sometimes the murderer calls it an "execution" - Ceausescu, Zulfikar Bhutto, perhaps Saddam now - but that doesn't change the facts.

[minionofmidas]

Old tyrants are not executed, they are exiled or murdered. Sometimes the murderer calls it an "execution" - Ceausescu, Zulfikar Bhutto, perhaps Saddam now - but that doesn't change the facts.

Well, I'm sure the hundreds of thousands of Kurds slaughtered by Saddam wouldn't care what it was called.

They're dead, so indeed they don't care.
But then they don't care whether he is killed in the first place.

[minionofmidas]

Old tyrants are not executed, they are exiled or murdered. Sometimes the murderer calls it an "execution" - Ceausescu, Zulfikar Bhutto, perhaps Saddam now - but that doesn't change the facts.

Well, I'm sure the hundreds of thousands of Kurds slaughtered by Saddam wouldn't care what it was called.

They're dead, so indeed they don't care.
But then they don't care whether he is killed in the first place.

Perhaps...depends on one's views on afterlife matters. But the Kurdish survivors of those massacres do care.

And addressing the point you seem to be making. I do think the death penalty is overused and not subject to enough oversight. But sometimes, it is appropriate, and killing one of the worst war criminals alive today is something I consider appropriate.

It's probably bad politics.