(no subject)

[cleolinda]

According to CNN, the Saddam execution is a fait accompli, although I can't find a news link for it yet. I don't know why I keep posting about it--if nothing else, I'm just stunned by how quickly it went through.

ETA: Link courtesy of cinderbella84.

Comments

[bubbly.livejournal.com]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16389128/

So they say. :\

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

Here's a BBC link too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6218485.stm

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

One major factor in the speed of the execution is that sunrise tomorrow (today?) begins a Muslim holiday called Eid (sp?), and according to religious law there can't be any executions curing that time

[alpheratz.livejournal.com]

I'm just stunned by how quickly it went through.

A lot of people are. And why does it feel like a bomb just went off?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It feels more like the eye of a storm to me--very quiet. Uneasily so. But that's just my own emotional impression--maybe that's shock.

I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Saddam was this country's bête noire for something like fifteen years, through two different Bushes and two different wars. And I think part of the reason I feel uneasy is that I personally feel like the Bushes went after Saddam when they should have been pursuing Bin Laden, because there was a lot of old and bad blood there, and that now that he's gone... what do they have left? They don't have any excuses now; Saddam's gone, and we're in a second Vietnam. And even aside from the Bush issue entirely--just from a sociological point of view: who's going to be the new boogeyman?

That, and there's something about the whole Saddam-in-captivity thing that's kind of... ignominious and pitiful, on a personal level. I know that's going to come out wrong and sound like I sympathize with him in any way whatsoever, and I don't. I do think he was a dictator, and a cruel one at that, and a war criminal. I wouldn't have him un-captured, and I'm not even sure I'd have him un-executed, although personally I would have preferred life imprisonment, rather than have bizarre statements like "The Americans want him to be hanged respectfully," the way we're seeing. I don't know. I guess... I guess I just believe that you can recognize certain sad absurdities in life without necessarily being on that person's side.

[r-a-black.livejournal.com]

I was just watching CNN, their information is pretty jumbled, they weren't certain of what was going on and then suddenly "Saddam Hussein was executed ten minutes ago." I'm looking for links but nothings new on Yahoo other than the article you posted up earlier.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yahoo's not terribly good for right-this-second type news, but it's pretty good in terms of being thorough once the dust has settled, since it draws from both Reuters and the AP. I actually didn't have the TV on at all--I got an email alert from CNN, which shows you how reliable they are by contrast.

[confusedmuchly.livejournal.com]

I still think they should've stuck him in a prison in Texas... still would've gotten the same result, right?

I wonder how long it'll be until some sort of video is leaked on to YouTube...

[falco-conlon.livejournal.com]

oh damn. Now THAT would be a punishment...Although, he'd probably just get murdered within a week.

[theatershadow25.livejournal.com]

yahoo has it too http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061230/ts_nm/iraq_dc_56

[theatershadow25.livejournal.com]

According to this article, the Iraqi gov't believes people who support Hussein apparently don't have the ability to go online. Silly yahoo.

[wildcatlizzie.livejournal.com]

CNN Link (http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/12/29/hussein/index.html)

I guess now it's all a matter of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

[gracefallson-me.livejournal.com]

well its not like someone was going to sever the rope.

[falco-conlon.livejournal.com]

wow. I'd say "Then it's over" but its so obviously not. I hope the retaliation isn't as bad as everyone says its going to be. Honestly, I think they should have let him rot in jail for ever. For me, anyway, that would be a worse punishment...death is just an escape...

[leavesoflorien.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I felt that he deserved life in prison, not death. Besides, hanging? Suffocation is cruel. He was an evil man, cruel, sure. But that does not mean that we kill him in an inhumane way.

This whole situation unsettled me, especially when my (*cough*CONSERVATIVEREPUBLICAN*cough*) family members were cheered by the news. Saddam's supporters aren't going to let this one sit quietly. I get the feeling that something bad is going to happen.

I can't find it in myself to support the death penalty--no matter who the criminal is. Call me soft, but I wouldn't have even executed Hitler. When I say I don't believe in the death penalty, I mean that across the board. This doesn't mean that I support any of these people in any way. Saddam was obviously a murderer, a dictator, an evil man, etc. But not even Saddam deserved to be hanged.

[amaelamin.livejournal.com]

I know it's all over the news and will be more so tomorrow, but - it doesn't feel real, you know? It's like pronouncing the monster in the closet officially dead.

[celtic-songster.livejournal.com]

There's another link on my journal that I just posted to the Yahoo article, if you're interested.

[thegeneralerin.livejournal.com]

The image on CNN.com's homepage is really...awkward. It looks like the nice pictures when someone "good" dies. The b&w pic, the name, the dates...that feels odd.
Here's a pic, because they'll probably change it.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v156/snow_wolf34/cnn.png

I agree, I feel odd about the whole thing. I guess I fear that things will only get worse. I hope that somehow things will get better, and that there will be some sort of rebuilding and the Iraq can begin to move on and take care of itself. I don't think it'll happen anytime soon, sadly. Still don't know what to think of him being executed.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

I looked up "fait accompli" and discovered that it is defined to be "an accomplished and presumably irreversible deed or fact."

Yeah, hangings tend to be.

It feels weird. I mean...Saddam Hussein (http://www.rockpapersaddam.com/one.html)?

Ode to Saddam: Haiku version

[bacardibreezer7.livejournal.com]

Saddam Hussein go away
You were really really mean
And made people cry.

[yarha.livejournal.com]

And tomorrow, 150 bodies will be discovered buried in a cellar in Baghdad. What's one more body in this mess?

He killed a lot of people. He went out quickly, since hanging involves neck snapping these days. A right bastard has found his grave. Was it worth it? No, but perhaps it was just.

Yarha, So Much Blood for Only a Little Justice

[agatha-mandrake.livejournal.com]

On the CBC last night, an analyst was discussing how Saddam would be remembered. He feels it all hinges on how quickly the country is stabalized. If it's soon, then Saddam will be remembered as the worst catastrophe in Iraq history since the Mongol invasion of 1258. If the country isn't stabalized soon, he'll basically be remembered as a martyr.

CBC (http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/12/29/saddam-dead.html)

Cognitive dissonance is what it is.

[xander77.livejournal.com]

Really. We're trained to associate "bad guy dead" with the climax for a movie, or at least a season. No longer will he fly off in turbo-bunker, taunting "I'll get you yet, America! And your little Israel, too!"

The execution not being followed by G.W and Blair finally recognizing their love for each other and sharing a tender kiss as the sun symbolically dawns over the Washington memorial is a major disappointment to all concerned.

Or, just possibly, that vague feeling of unease is the death of that little inner child that still believes that Mr Incarnation of EVIL is to blame for all the nasty bad stuff, and dealing with him will make the difference.

I wonder whether we're going to see a further decrease in the public pressure to finally catch Osama...

Also

[xander77.livejournal.com]

Happy New Year, Feliz Navidad, Shana Tova, S Novym Godom, Nouvelle Année Heureuse, Nuovo Anno Felice, etc, from this time zone.

[want2bspry.livejournal.com]

Anybody following the "Saddam has been Executed; and now it's on YouTube" string on BoingBoing?http://www.boingboing.net/2006/12/29/saddam_hussein_has_b.html

This part was interesting:

BBC is running a story on the fact that the phonecam video differs significantly from the "official" Al Iraqiya footage, which seemed to depict a quiet, dignified procedure. In contrast, the "unofficial" phonecam video shows Hussein being taunted and cursed at his death, and him taunting back, while camera flashes go off . . .