Death of a dictator..

[Iron Greasel]

Originally posted by PurpleXVI: Unfair trial and his death lets too many American, British and other Western politicians/military officers off the hook for their participation in his atrocities. It's essentially nothing to do with justice, it's about as bad as the decapitation videos, it's just a propaganda murder. A killing for publicity and to kill your opponent's will to fight.

Alas, that is how wars work. The winner writes in the history books that the loser was an evil murdering bastard who deserved to die for his terrible acts, and the loser is in no position to object because the loser is dead. The winner then claims that the war was the loser's fault in the first place, and the loser is directly to blame for the half a million civilian casualties of the operation.

[Timber Loftis]

Dammit, I opened this thinking someone had finally killed Bush.

[Iron Greasel]

Timber, the power to kill Bush has always been yours. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Black Baron]

Good riddance. He should have died by torture and buried in pig's skin, but you can't have it all.

[PurpleXVI]

If we were torture him then we would have been no better than he was, and if we lose the moral high ground, then we lose any right we may have to intervene or interfere anywhere in the world, not to mention the horrific PR issue it would be.

Both from a pragmatic and an ethical viewpoint, it wouldn't be good. It would probably have been intensely satisfying to the ones afflicted by his horrible actions during his life, but in the end, it would've caused more trouble than it would have ended.

[johnny]

Looking back at that (illegal) footage filmed by one of his guards, i'd say he came out as the moral victor. He may be dead, but he died as a martyr to his people, holding a koran in his hand, and taunting his executioners. This is much more than he deserved really. Maybe it would have been best to have imprisoned him until the day he would have died of natural causes. His memory would have faded away eventually, now his followers will always remember the image of a proud man who was not afraid of death.

[PurpleXVI]

There's ONE thing that could maybe have made his followers knock it off. If they made him accept a bribe to go live out the rest of his life in the Bahamas or something. That would completely discredit him in the eyes of his cause. Unfortunately it would also mean he'd never pay for his crimes.

Compromises everywhere, too bad we can't have it all.

[SpiritWarrior]

IIRC they did offer him exile as an option a few years back didn't they? He refused of course, and went into hiding. There's no way I could have watched that leaked video of his death...things like that disturb me when they are real.

[johnny]

Originally posted by SpiritWarrior: IIRC they did offer him exile as an option a few years back didn't they? He refused of course, and went into hiding. There's no way I could have watched that leaked video of his death...things like that disturb me when they are real.

The footage was rather bad, someone filmed it with his cellphone. When Saddam actually fell, you couldn't see a thing, it all happened too fast.

[PurpleXVI]

There's a version WITH all of the "good stuff" in it. But seriously, I find it disgusting that anyone would watch either. As I put it earlier: No better than the decapitation video. Men unfairly put to death as a propaganda statement.