Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein

[Democratic Hawk]

Should Iraq have dealt with Saddam a la Ceaucescu style?

Ceaucescu was overthrown in Romania, tried and executed in the space of 4 days back in December 1989. Justice as it's swiftest; while Saddam was detained for three years awaiting trial and execution

Personally, I don't support the death penalty but I must admit I couldn't give two hoots about the human rights of those who spent best part of their time in power violating the human rights of others

Of course, the profound difference is that while Ceaucescu was overthrown from within (i.e. by a revolution), Saddam was not

Dave

[opebo]

There was no option for 'reinstated with an apology and reparations', so I voted for life imprisonment.

Btw, Senator Dave 'Hawk', our own strongman has spent the better part of his time in power violating the human rights of others..

[Tender Branson]

Option 3

[MasterJedi]

Option 2

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Option 3

[Democratic Hawk]

There was no option for 'reinstated with an apology and reparations', so I voted for life imprisonment.

Didn't really expect yours truly to include such an option, surely. So, you had to vote the same way as I did. Could that be a first ?

Dave

[Eraserhead]

There was no option for 'reinstated with an apology and reparations', so I voted for life imprisonment.

[Democratic Hawk]

There was no option for 'reinstated with an apology and reparations', so I voted for life imprisonment.

Now come on, I expect that from opebo, but not you. What is it with this sympathy from supposedly "progressives" for Saddam Hussein ?

Dave

[KEmperor]

There was no option for 'reinstated with an apology and reparations', so I voted for life imprisonment.

Now come on, I expect that from opebo, but not you. What is it with this sympathy from supposedly "progressives" for Saddam Hussein ?

Dave

Bush went after Saddam.  Bush is evil.  Therefore Saddam must be good.

This is the mindset of the extreme leftist nutjobs.

[Boris]

Option 3

[AkSaber]

Hussein murdered how many hundreds of thousands? Did he give any of them a trial?

I don't see why he should have been given one.

[Gabu]

Hussein murdered how many hundreds of thousands? Did he give any of them a trial?

I don't see why he should have been given one.

In the civilized world, all men, regardless of likelihood of guilt, are presumed innocent of any crime until proven guilty of at least one beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.  This ensures that we can have as much confidence as possible that the accused did indeed carry out the crime(s) in question and will not be subject to punishment for something that he or she did not do.

I don't see why exceptions should be made for those who don't follow the same set of rules.  Aren't we supposed to be better than them?  The entire point of a trial is to firmly and concretely establish the guilt that you mentioned above.  If it had turned out by some weird chance that Saddam had not, in fact, done any of what everyone thought he had done whatsoever, it would have been a travesty to execute him purely to act tough.

I should also point out that murderers in general never give their victims a trial.  The fact that Saddam Hussein committed rather more murders than the average murderer does not change this fact.  Thus, by the logic above, we should never give anyone suspected of murder a trial at all and simply execute them immediately.

[Yates]

Option 2

[minionofmidas]

Should Iraq have dealt with Saddam a la Ceaucescu style?

Ceaucescu was overthrown in Romania, tried and executed in the space of 4 days back in December 1989. Justice as it's swiftest; while Saddam was detained for three years awaiting trial and execution

Ceaucescu was not tried, whatever the apologists of his death may claim. Ceaucescu was murdered, and while I have no sympathy whatsoever for the man himself, his murderers are wholly deserving of the appropriate punishment (which is not, of course, death).

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So what, exactly, is your view on Bush and Blair's further fate?

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A better comparison - a better measure of how far America has fallen from grace - is of Saddam's kangaroo trial with Manuel Noriega's trial - even though, of course, Saddam was a worse man than Noriega (But not crazier - Noriega was pretty damn crazy ), and although Noriega's trial, too, can be held to have been faulty.