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Saddam Hussein Sentenced to Death
indraneil writes "Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death along with his half brother. Three Baath party officials charged with Hussein in the killings of 148 Shiite civilians have been sentenced to 15 years in prison, while a fourth has been cleared.
He is to be hanged inside 30 days from now. Saddam Hussein has been given 10 days to appeal against the decision.
His lawyer has warned to a bloodbath if the sentence is carried out."
Is anyone even in the slightest bit surprised that this was the verdict?
Why is this news on Slashdot?
The US hand picked the judges and the sentence was a forgone conclusion.
Will Saddam get a chance to talk about how he had US support during the war with Iran? I doubt it.
Saddam shouldn't be executed he should be kept alive in a cell for the rest of his life as a lesson for the Iraqi's to learn from.
Executing Saddam will only turn him into a martyr.
Thoughts?
I found out first about the WTC plane crashes on Slashdot. While everything else was a mess, Slashdot proved to be the best resouce. Sometimes the site can serve a better place by being more than just tech and yet not lose its roots.
SIG: HUP
This is the thing about the appearance of impropriety. It's an important, and formal, concept in credible court systems like those in America.
If there may be an appereance that the verdict was planned or timed, you do things to avoid even that appearance.
Such as not announcing a verdict on the weekend before the U.S. elections.
I'm not saying for sure they timed it, because I just don't know. But I do know for sure that they could have waited 3 days and changed the whole image of the thing.
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"Will killing him bring back the 148 dead Shiites?"
Killing him will dash the hopes of Sunis wishing to reinstate him and letting him do it all over again. Unless he was going to be held in some prison outside of Iraq, that would always be one of the hopes of the Suni insurgents.
Did you hear his statements upon hearing the sentence? One might interpret them as his shot at martyrdom, but really they're his attempt to convince Sunis outside the courtroom to bust him out.
If the only alternative is to be held in an Iraqi prison, this is the only way to ensure he won't do it again.
Punish killing by killing! Go hypocrisy!
Punish kidnapping by putting someone in jail! Go hypocrisy!
ALL punishments of a criminal would be considered illegal if performed by someone on an innocent person. Therefore, by your logic, all punishing of criminals is hypocritical.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Awww, look at cute wittle Adolph. His mother and father loved him dearly.
Life is rarely fair. Cherish the moments when there is a right answer.
He should have been tried in The Hague at the International Court of Justice. The problem with trying him there is that the US would lose control over the proceedings and would not be able to use the trial for their own political gain.
Not to mention the rather minor point that the US broke international law by invading Iraq in the first place.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Actually, the death penalty is less punishment than life in prison would be.
He figures that in death he's at least some sort of martyr. Dying alone and forgotten of old age in some solitary cell as he watches his country move on (or fall apart or whatever happens) without him denies him even that.
It also means we don't sink to the same level. You don't want to become the very thing you're fighting against.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
I had a long rebuttal typed up addressing your careless use of rhetorical devices, but decided against it about halfway through and deleted it. Frankly, posts such as yours are not insightful, interesting, funny, or informative. They're just semantic and boring.