[lit-ideas] Re: Saddam supporters vow revenge on US, Shi'ites

  • From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2007 11:50:18 -0800

I just switched to Vista and for some unknown reason couldn't get the
youtube video, but I looked at the rest.  I understood the implications of
the hanging well enough before I read those articles.  A vicious dictator
was executed by his people for cause.  If you and some others want to cry
about it, go ahead.  Another milestone in the war against Militant Islam has
been met.  Will you moan and cry and accuse me of insensitivity if Osama bin
Laden should ever be caught and executed?   My reaction will be the same.
He as Saddam before him deserves to be executed.  Are you boo-hooing because
the Iraqis didn't do it quite right?  Get a grip.  The new government hasn't
had much practice yet.  Do the boo-hoo articles change anything?   The fact
remains that Saddam was guilty of the crimes he was accused of and not only
those crimes.  He deserved to be executed in accordance with Iraqi law, and
he was executed.  Well done.  Oh, it wasn't done quite right?  Try and do
better next time then.

 

Simon for one is alarmed about the huge numbers of Saddamites he expects to
overwhelm civilization as we know it.  I think we knew in advance how many
of those we could expect.  Saddam Hussein didn't commit all those crimes by
himself.  Anyone who was supportive of Saddam is going to be unhappy about
not only his execution but his own future as well.  Islamists too will be
unhappy about Saddam's execution.  Yeah, Saddam was an infidel, but he was
their infidel and they admired him for standing up to the US.  Simon implied
that we should have stopped the execution (presumably by usurping some Iraqi
rights) for fear of all the Saddamites.   But who cares that they don't like
the execution.  They were on Saddam's side right along or admired his
anti-Americanism and now prove that they are still in sympathy with his
anti-American cause by bemoaning his execution.  Who cares what they think!

 

Lawrence

 

-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Andreas Ramos
Sent: Tuesday, January 02, 2007 10:42 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Saddam supporters vow revenge on US, Shi'ites

 

From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

 

 

> I admit I don't understand Simon very well.  Why he should want to make
such

> a big deal over the death of this particular dictator escapes me.

 

I can understand that Lawrence doesn't grasp what is going on.

 

See how Forbes "reported" the hanging.

 

http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebusiness/feeds/ap/2006/12/30/ap3289560.htm
l

 

It's a distortion of what happened (which you can watch at YouTube 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpOI2vgfpO4 )

 

Here's John Prescott's (UK deputy prime minister) reaction to the hanging:

 

"I think the manner was quite deplorable, really. I don't think one can
endorse in any way 

that, whatever your views about capital punishment. Frankly, to get the kind
of recorded 

messages coming out is totally unacceptable. I think whoever's involved and
responsible for 

it should be ashamed of themselves."

 

The Telegraph writes:

 

"In Washington the air is heavy with recrimination as the implications of
Saddam Hussein's 

grotesquely botched execution sink in. What should have been an act of
justice following due 

process had the baying ugliness of a lynching. A judicial execution designed
to show finally 

that the era of Saddam is over threatens to have the opposite effect. When a
dictator of 

exceptional brutality is shown dying with dignity and no little courage at
the hands of 

hooded thugs, the martyr's crown surely beckons. No wonder American
officials are washing 

their hands of the whole gruesome affair, and Tony Blair is refusing to make
any comment 

from his Miami poolside."

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/01/02/dl0201
.xml

 

Note the official US reaction, namely, none. Bush seems to have been unaware
of the hanging, 

and now, stays away from commenting. No celebration speeches, no victory
parades.

 

The NYT reviews the evolution of US policy in Iraq throughout 2006. The US
tried various 

strategies, but because the US did not understand the situation (or refused
to understand 

the situation), each approach failed. Iraq spiraled downward.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/washington/02war.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=
slogin

 

Other newspapers report the same thing: Bush is about to fire Gen. Casey (in
charge of all 

US military in Iraq).

 

That's why Lawrence can't understand the implications of the hanging. He
doesn't understand 

the context either.

 

yrs,

andreas

www.andreas.com

 

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