Pardon me for not celebrating.

[Philosoraptor]

I guess I'm a jerk, but I certainly don't see the need to stand up and cheer cause Saddam swung. What are we celebrating exactly? How are things any better over there now? Besides satiating our lust for vengeance, which supposedly isn't even ours but the Lord's, why exactly should I be cheering and raising a glass and grinning ghoulishly?

In my opinion, you'd have to be an idiot of the highest order to stand up and cheer drunkenly just because the Iraqis executed their dictator that we put there. While 100 tortured bodies a week are being found in the streets of Baghdad, and we've reached the 3000 dead soldiers mark, there can be no real cause for throwing a victory party.

All in all, I think the neo cons and the republics and the rednecks just want that big victory party they've been fantasizing about for 6 years now. They've been deprived of their feel good high fives and pats on the back, and now they can jump up and cheer for a few minutes and masturbate over the barbarian spectacle of Vercingetorix executed for Caesar and the glory of Romerica.

Pardon me for not celebrating while I watch the hidden flag draped coffins go rolling along.

[ixion]

1. celebrating the execution of anyone, no matter how 'bad' they were

is sick, IMO.

Anyone who celebrates this event is a deeply disturbed individual, IMO.

[donheld]

2. Me neither

no celebrations here. We'll pay for what's been done.

[cassiepriam]

3. We have become sadistic barbarians like Bush.

Invade a country, kill its leader after a farce kangaroo court.
All because we wanted his oil.

I am sad for this country and what we have become.
Monsters like Bush Co.

[izzie]

4. Read history and it always makes one sad.

--

[cassiepriam]

5. Yes it is so sad to see what we have become.

[cool user name]

10. I was flamed because I brought up ...

... the fact that the Germans made the Holocaust legal.

Posters actually said, "Legal?"

I said, "Yes, Legal."

They obtufased as much as they possibly could, probably because they didn't want to rain on the hang Sadaam bandwagon.

Yet, no matter how "legal" we make this, doesn't make this right. And this doesn't have international sanction - meaning this was not held at the ICJ at the Hague were proceedings for war crimes normally take place.

Why not? Why didn't they take place within the normal international legal framework? Why aren't the same precedents that took down Nazi war criminals, who by the way exercised their lawful duty*, taken with Sadaam? What is the reason?

*The Nazi legal framework made legal to execute Jews, Roma, Gays, dissenters, communists, enemies of the state, etc..

[izzie]

31. It is never legal or moral to kill.

We just make the law fit what we wish to do and feel good about.

[madokie]

6. I'll not be celebrating

a dead body is a dead body
and for those who are, my advice is to wait a few days and see how this works out

[cool user name]

12. Morally: Absutely fucked up. Pragmatically: Even worse.

'Nuff said.


:((

[William769]

7. There are 2 million Iraqis that won't be celebrating New Years on Monday.

Because of Sadam. Just saying.

[LynnTheDem]

29. And 655,000 - 900,000 that won't because of george w. bush.

And there's no end in sight.

Just saying.

[William769]

35. I agree.

But hey, we have to start somwhere.

[cosmik debris]

8. I think this should be posted in every Saddam thread

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

John Donne, 1624

[CrispyQ]

25. What you do to one, you do to all. -nt

[cool user name]

9. I wholeheartedly back your post, Philosoraptor ...

This is a day that will live in "infamy."

:(

[MadHound]

11. Nor I

How can one celebrate the death of Saddam, knowing full well that if it wasn't for the US, he wouldn't have reached the position he did? How can one call his trial "justice" when it was such an obviously rigged farce from the beginning? How can one celebrate such a death, for while Saddam is punished for the thousands that he killed, those who are responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi innocents over the past fifteen years are lauded as "great American leaders?" How can one take joy in this spectacle, knowing that a copy of this political pornographic snuff film has already been been delivered to Bushboy, for his own "personal enjoyment."

There is nothing to celebrate in this spectacle, it is a sick and morbid showing of the dark side of the American psyche. Many, many Americans are cheering this morbid display, and in a cruel twist of hypocrisy, many, if not most of them would consider themselves "pro-life" But they cheer and whistle as the corpse swings in the breeze, fully convinced of the merits of their morbid position, while not seeing that killing for justice is like fucking for virginity, an ultimately futile and hypocritical position for a person to take, one that leads to many more problems, and deaths, later on down the road.

Another sad manifestation of disorder, both in Iraqi society and ours. Hopefully people are paying attention.

[peacetalksforall]

13. Not only should we not celebrate, we should not have hanged

him. The Iraqi Govt and the U.S. are the same, at this point. The U.S. made a big mistake by doing/allowing this.

We are the invader-executioners.

And ... we, as man, were never given the authority to do this. We only think we gave each other the power to do it.

Capital punishment is a very low form of humanity and it's anti-religious. It is the ultimate arrogance. It is the ultimate macho. It is the ultimate God-uppance.

[teryang]

14. How many decapitated and tortured Iraqi corpses did they find

...last night? Did the US government supported death squads take the night off for PR reasons to give proper prominence to the Saddam execution?

Summary execution has little to do with the rule of law. Is there a ruler in the mideast/world today who really doesn't deserve to hang for the crimes they have committed?

But I am not a believer in the death penalty. The US assisted Saddam in the slaughter of hundreds of thousands. Then he stopped taking orders. So we killed hundreds of thousands more.

This exercise in hypocrisy, our executioner-in-chief calling this a lesson in the "rule of law" is a lesson intended for Americans, home on their holiday weekend. Charlie Christ and Jeb Bush have been executing as many death row residents as possible to start the new year with a "clean slate."

While executions in Florida can hardly said to be summary, the inherent political nature of government and law render the "best" judicial system unreliable. Apparently, a 56 day appeal period before hanging is a good lesson in the "rule of law" for the American people to grasp according to the great decider and the ruling American elites he represents.

Colonialism, prelude to Totalitarianism.

[Philosoraptor]

16. bush calls it an important milestone. I call it Pandora's box.

[teryang]

20. Keep up the great posts!

just received a notice that someone is trying to send me a virus (after my posts this am?).

Allegedly, the source was in Denmark. I made an anti AIPAC post the other night that was "removed by moderator." Admin says it didn't happen. I've never had a post deleted before after more than ten thousand posts over several years.

[smirkymonkey]

30. I agree - I think there are going to be serious repurcussions

from this action. Saddam may be gone, but we have crossed a line and I think there will be consequences from it. I don't think this is a victory or a closed door by any means.

[Orsino]

15. If there is anything "good" about his execution...

...it is that Saddam will never rule again. Our invasion and botched occupation had probably made him look pretty good in comparison.

There is, alas, no shortage of evil assholes who would take his place. Even if one supports capital punishment, I don't see a reason to celebrate.

[MuseRider]

17. We set them up we knock them down.

It sickens me.

[domlaw]

18. I agree 100 percent

Well said

[The Count]

19. Had Iraqis brought him to justice while earning a better government

This event might have had some meaning for them. As it is, it's just one milestone in a long fall into the abyss...

[ThomCat]

21. Celebrating the death of the guy we propped up,

convicting him of doing things we approved, and in some cases we orchestrated, convicting him of using weapons we sold him, and covering up our part in it so that he's guilty but we're not...

x(
And then killing him to show that killing is wrong.

Yeah, I'm with you. I see nothing to celebrate. We're a nation of violent, vicious hypocrites.

[Bluerthanblue]

22. i'm so happy to be a 'jerk' along with you, and many others here

who see the sad f*&ked up irony in this kind of mindset.

Thank you for your post, and for the comfort that knowing we are not alone brings, in this dark and weary world.

no pardon necessiary for you Philosoraptor-

mercy triumphs

[C_U_L8R]

23. "thou shalt not kill"

nuff said

[Jcrowley]

24. Well said

K&R

[The Backlash Cometh]

26. You got it right.

[EstimatedProphet]

27. Well put

People celebrating this gives a bad taste, doesn't it? Almost like blood...

[pdxmom]

28. I remember the outrage at the footage that was out there

showing the celebrations in various places after 9/11. The only difference between them and those celebrating here in the U.S. at Saddam's execution is that here in the U.S., they are sitting behind the comfort of their computer screens, instead of out on the streets.

The execution or death of anyone is never a cause to "celebrate".

[blues90]

32. No celebration here either

What troubles me other than this hanging is that the rest of the world looks at those americans who are against this horrid act as part of the american ego war mongering mindset so we all are taken down a few more notches because of these freaks .

[uppityperson]

33. Me too.

[cwydro]

34. I agree.

This is truly sad. Only more violence will follow this.