Inspired by Superfly's blog, today’s classroom discussion focused around on the hanging of Saddam Hussein. Watching the videos of the actual event was a little too shocking, however even more shocking was the series of events leading up to the hanging. According to the NYTIMES there were procedural errors, and questions of responsibility. Did Saddam Hussein receive “justice”? What problems in the process are coming to light? What was America’s role in the process? As American citizens what should be our next course of action?
9 comments:
Today we heard about Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq. Four days ago the Iraqi government hanged Saddam Hussein. He was guilty of killing boys and men in a town where they try to assassinate him.
I think that Saddam Hussein should be in jail for life. I don't think they should have hanged him. I think he should be in jail because I don't agree with the death penalty.
I think he should be in jail because he should suffer because he killed many people.
During our class today we talked about the death of Saddam Hussein. The main question of the class was did he get justice for what he did. I believe he did get justice because when they executed him he felt the same pain as the people who he killed by hanging them. He went through the same process as they did. Those people were innocent when they were killed. Saddam Hussein only killed them because they didn’t do what he said. They actions he took by killing those people were wrong.
The problems that or coming to light during the process are people who watch him die were yelling things at him. Which I think was wrong in a way. Also there was person in the crowd with a video phone recording it and they didn’t want anybody to be doing that. America’s role was only to get Saddam Hussein the justice that he deserved. Our next course is to pull out and go after our next target and which is Osama Bin Laden give him the justice he should deserve too.
I agree with Edwin. Saddam could have spent life in prison, but hanging wasn't such a good idea. I mean, no he didn't recieve justice, but did he deserve it??? He killed a LOT of people!!!Who cares about procedural problems, he didn't deserve people to follow the rules to execute him. Does it matter anyway, when the end result was the same??
America's role was...well we handed our prisoner of war to the Iraqi's full well knowing that they were going to execute him. We probably gave him to them KNOWING they would do it, so we wouldn't have to!
I don't understand what you mean by our next course of action? Whats left to do, really? Our last "project" in what we have dubbed as a fixer-upper of a country is stabalize them so we can get the hell out, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
"He killed a LOT of people!!!Who cares about procedural problems, he didn't deserve people to follow the rules to execute him. Does it matter anyway, when the end result was the same??"
Samantha, does killing Mr. Hussein in practically the same fashion as he killed his victims (plus, of course, a court trial and an appeal) not, in effect, lower us to his standards? If we are, as I've said, attempting to maintain America's status as the anti-barbarians and to "elevate" Iraq into a functioning democracy, I think maybe they should be following some sort of defined procedure, like having at least two out of three of the people who were supposed to sign off on his execution actually sign... Just a thought. And what would have happened, really, if they'd waited a little longer to execute him?
Not all democracies are created equal.
Additionally, There was no court, appeals or otherwise, that was not going to have him executed. Just thought I mentioned that...
Our hands are NOT clean here. The state of Iraq, pre and post U.S. invasion, was our doing. We empowered Hussein, we supplied him with whatever weapons he had, we supported him in several conquests that would have been to our benefit. Now we decide to complain. What is wrong with us? Is hypocrisy a prerequisite for being a member of a government? Or was Hussein just a nice boy from Tikrit with a happy little heart, big ideas, and strong ideals? Is it power that corrupts or do only corrupt people want power? Mr. Hussein made an example of the men and boys from that small town (the charge that he was hanged for, all others were dropped because he was dead already) in order to protect his power and save face. And what have we just done? We (most certainly WE) have just made an example of this dictator to save our faces and protect our power. What is the difference? I do not see any huge differences between Hussein and us besides who dies. We kill people outside our country and he kills people inside his country (possibly, I over simplify here, but what is the difference between the murder and executioner besides the name and mode of death? If we are still working with a system that uses “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” in which we sentence people to death and chop off hands and whatever then why don’t we just call it that? Like Samantha, I seem to have issues with being lied to…)
As a government, do we have any integrity left at all?
I thought this article was very controversial in my mind and even coming home and hearing the way my family would talk about. Being a Suni Muslim talking about Saddam being hanged puts me on the fence about whether or not he should have been hanged. I don’t believe in the death penalty but I do think that what he did was horrible, killing millions of people and going on a rampage. I think people like that shouldn’t have been on a reign for so long for all of that to even happen for years. Why couldn’t have someone done something about it when it first began, instead of in the middle of a war. I think that if he’s had a history of inhumane acts, why wasn’t he caught and put on trial when the acts acutely happened, or warranted. I think that Saddam being hanged and put on trial was purposely done now, to take the spot light away from the war in Iraq and put onto the hanging of Saddam. I think the Americans planned that they would seem like they were helping Iraq bring down Saddam and that in the end make the Iraq people think they are “good people” since they helped bring down Saddam’s regime. It distracts the Iraqi’s from thinking about the war and allows America advance in the war. I think no matter who you are, you are open to a fair trial, that’s legit and not set up. What’s the point of going to court if you aren’t given an equal chance. I think that if he sat in jail for the rest of his life, and hanged it would be the same punishment because he wouldn’t be able to create any harm behind bars, or in a grave. I don’t believe in an eye for an eye and I think that just because what he did to someone was wrong, it doesn’t mean it makes it right to repeat the act and do it onto them. Its just the point of being the bigger person and settling your differences. You cant bring back all the people that were lost, but justice can be served dead or alive, behind bars or beneath a grave, hanging wasn’t the only way to go. I felt sad looking at the video of him being hung because no matter who you are death is universal and its hard to see anyone loose a life no matter the type of person you are. I don’t think seeing anyone dead would bring someone satisfaction, but yet I don’t know how it feels like to have my family gassed and let the culprit roam around carefree. I don’t know what I would have liked to see, but all I know is that this topic sits uneasy with me because I don’t know how to look at it or feel about it firmly and I usually don’t feel that way, I guess this really is a grey area to look at.
mr brown i found the article on the pillow angel and the parents website
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1982370,00.html#article_continue
http://ashleytreatment.spaces.live.com/
its so sad and so out of the ordinary
doing class we talked about mr saddam hussein and how he was the pres. of iraq and other stuff he did in the past. the iraq gov. hanged him and now the iraq people have different sayings on how they should of waited or they are happy that he's dead.
i really do think that they should of waited andjus put him to life in jail, i dont belive in killings and death row and i think people should jus suffer in jail for what they done
The discussion that we had in class about Saddam Hussein was quite interesting. I feel that Saddam was a very powerful ruler when he was younger, and after what he did to those innocent men and young boys he should have suffered more.. I also do not believe in teh death penalty but i feel that he could have 'suffered' in jail for the rest of his life but i feel that they did what was right...knowing what a "wise" man he was...if he stayed in jail he would hvae found a way to escape..
In my opinion, I though it was actually refreshing to see two sides of the story and notice just how much of an impact the media has on how we, the public, perceive events. With just the addition of sound we are able to see Suddam Hussein's hanging in a new perspective and capture the opinions of those who witnessed the event first hand. I personally do not agree with the death penalty as I feel it serves no purpose. Holding the power that Suddam Hussein had, wouldn't it be more beneficial to put him in jail where there is a chance that he would live life as a consequence to his horrible actions. Maybe then at least he might learn something as opposed to hanging him.
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