# Everything's cool, Saddam's been arrested. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 14, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934 "2003-12-14T12:07:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/101 "2003-12-15T03:17:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*But it’s a _little_ voice so far. \*\* Well, you know what “they” say - the little voices in your head will drive you crazy over time. He’s captured, which is a good thing; it’s likely that Pres. Bush will gain votes as a result, but we all know he’ll win. Those of us who oppose his adminstration are in the minority. Strange, yet true. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/102 "2003-12-15T03:32:09Z")
Don’t say that. ---
**Author:** ![Badtz\_Maru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e36b37/32.png) [@Badtz\_Maru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badtz_Maru)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/103 "2003-12-15T04:07:57Z")
Seems a lot easier to find a 200 lb. dictator than several tons of WMDs. ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/104 "2003-12-15T04:31:15Z")
On the bright side, we have the Barney II video - he’s as cute as his master’s administration is ugly. [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031211-7.html](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/12/20031211-7.html) What? Stop throwing things at me - it’s your tax dollars at work here… ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/105 "2003-12-15T04:49:57Z")
resident Smirk [dropped Barney on the Tarmac](http://homepage.mac.com/patkane/iblog/C2069686149/E647893151/) to the horror of a girls softball team. The Asshat twins Rove and Card are in that video. At least Ari Fleisher’s scene is somewhat humorous. …that’s all I got. except maybe Saddam will be the Person of the Year in Time… ---
**Author:** ![aurelian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f4b2a3/32.png) [@aurelian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurelian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/106 "2003-12-15T05:04:56Z")
This has been a really interesting thread to read. I’m not sure if my reaction to Bremer’s initial break of the news is in the ‘minority’ or the ‘majority’ but I was saddened by it. In the version I saw (I don’t know how it was edited), he was at the podium, was quiet for a moment, and burst out with “We got 'im!!” The press corps erupted into applause. The capture of a man who has killed thousands is most certainly a victory for good in the world. But Bremer’s reaction felt more like a retaliatory celebration than the potential (and power) to now bring an almost inconceivably brutal man to justice. It felt cheap. Mobs of people say “We got him!”, bounty hunters say “We got him!”, not an army that is in search of a man accused of genocide. I would imagine that such a display won’t help America’s reputation as a cowboyish nation. going back to lurking. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/107 "2003-12-15T05:16:40Z")
That was not the “press corps” cheering - certainly not the guys who happened to be third-row center shouting “Death to Saddam”. Last I heard they were newly dubbed “journalists” for news outlets that didn’t exist till yesterday. They are Rovian machinations. They are as real as the styrofoam turkey on a platter Chimpy posed with, as if he was serving the troops - who were hand-picked - and ate their Thanksgiving breakfast off steam-trays. Wait till the “State of the Union” speech that Bush reads off the teleprompter next month. If he hasn’t wheeled Saddam out in some Hannibal contraption with a face-mask, he surely will have done so metaphorically. Over and over and over. Lie after lie after lie. Peace. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/108 "2003-12-15T06:11:42Z")
[“How can I use the bathroom while my people are in bondage?”](http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1071455383050_34/?hub=TopStories) That’s a bumper-sticker, right there. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/109 "2003-12-15T06:44:42Z")
From **Larry** ’s link: > [@](#): > > During Hussein’s capture, U.S. troops discovered “descriptive written material of significant value,” one U.S. commander in Iraq told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He declined to say whether the material related to Iraqi insurgents. Probably rare issues of Penthouse Forum. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/110 "2003-12-15T09:08:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Corbomite \* > \*\*That was not the “press corps” cheering - certainly not the guys who happened to be third-row center shouting “Death to Saddam”. Last I heard they were newly dubbed “journalists” for news outlets that didn’t exist till yesterday. > > They are Rovian machinations.\*\* No offense, but do you have a cite for that? I’d be interested in reading it, but my sources so far do not carry stories along those lines. **Scylla** , perhaps I should have been clearer: my previous post was based on **Airman Doors** ’ assumption that OBL is indeed in a 40 square mile area of Pakistan, and “we” know where this is. All I’m saying is that IF that’s indeed the case, then GWB should divert all possible resources to get OBL out of there. He likes to talk about “direct threats to the American people”, he even referenced remaining Baathists by that moniker yesterday (a few guerrillas in Iraq are a direct threat to the American people? WTF??): I’d say there hasn’t _been_ a more direct threat to the American people than OBL in the last 60 years. Well, barring a handful of US presidents, perhaps. But at any rate, OBL is a million times more dangerous to the population of the US than Saddam _ever_ was. Just because you know his whereabouts to a certain degree (assuming this is true, again) doesn’t mean he’s powerless: he conducted 9/11 from a cave as well. He’s not contained in any way, shape, or form. And Pakistan only cooperated under immense international pressure. They’re not exactly a pro-US country, **Scylla** , and their weapons arsenal is a hell of a lot more imposing than anything that will be dug up from the Iraqi desert. \*\* Akatsukami\*\*: I don’t even know how many people live in that area, but again, I was going by Airman’s description that it was a desolate mountain area. The US doesn’t have a problem talking about dead Iraqi citizens as “collateral damage”, so I don’t see why they should get all scrupulous now that the collateral victims would be Pakistani. Again, I say, IF GWB et al know the whereabouts of OBL, they have a duty to go after him. A duty that’s a hell of a lot more important and moral than going after oil under the guise of hunting for imaginary WMD’s. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/111 "2003-12-15T13:14:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF \* > \*\*Look. If he’s boxed in and negated, it’s as good as if he were in jail. I never said it was an ideal situation, I said it was good enough. > > Cool your jets, man. \*\* Well if he can plan another 9/11 from “jail”, it’s far from good enough. ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/112 "2003-12-15T13:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AHunter3 \* > \*\*The likelihood of me personally ending up beneath the oppressor-heel of Saddam Hussein is very small. The other guy, while obviously a much lesser evil, is an evil of this world, the world of laws and policies and politics that directly affect me. > \*\* Interesting, but for the sake of argument what would you like to happen if you did wake up and find someone like Saddam was in charge? Would you appreciate the fact the rest of the World was debating in the UN deciding how to, or if to, help you? So, when the goons came to take you away to police headquarters for interrogation would you still be happy to know that the debate over the legalities was still ongoing? And while they had you strung up by your thumbs and were using pliers to peel your skin off how would you feel if the reason you weren’t being help was because it was considered illegal according to International law? Would that make the pain any better for you to know the law wasn’t being broken? And if I somehow managed to rescue you from the death that would certainly be your ultimate fate at your tormentors hands, would that upset you even though it was illegal for me to do so according to the laws you are defending now? Maybe you’d even try to put me under some form of citizen’s arrest and drag me off to the Hague, huh? I guess I’ll never understand people who say because it is “The Law” that every bit of it should be followed to the letter. They say this even when they know people will die because it will stop others from acting. What kind of law is it that allows people to be killed indiscriminately because they are inside an arbitrarily determined border? What kinds of people stop others from acting to remove brutal dictators from power? Does respecting a country’s sovereignty over-ride the rights of its people from being brutalized and killed at the random whim of a dictator? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/113 "2003-12-15T13:40:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Uzi \* > \*\*Interesting, but for the sake of argument what would you like to happen if you did wake up and find someone like Saddam was in charge? > Would you appreciate the fact the rest of the World was debating in the UN deciding how to, or if to, help you? > So, when the goons came to take you away to police headquarters for interrogation would you still be happy to know that the debate over the legalities was still ongoing? > And while they had you strung up by your thumbs and were using pliers to peel your skin off how would you feel if the reason you weren’t being help was because it was considered illegal according to International law? Would that make the pain any better for you to know the law wasn’t being broken? > And if I somehow managed to rescue you from the death that would certainly be your ultimate fate at your tormentors hands, would that upset you even though it was illegal for me to do so according to the laws you are defending now? Maybe you’d even try to put me under some form of citizen’s arrest and drag me off to the Hague, huh? > > I guess I’ll never understand people who say because it is “The Law” that every bit of it should be followed to the letter. They say this even when they know people will die because it will stop others from acting. What kind of law is it that allows people to be killed indiscriminately because they are inside an arbitrarily determined border? What kinds of people stop others from acting to remove brutal dictators from power? Does respecting a country’s sovereignty over-ride the rights of its people from being brutalized and killed at the random whim of a dictator? \*\* Good, so who’s next? North Korea? I hear they have some pretty nice death camps over there. Let’s bring them the wonderful light of freedom post haste! ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/114 "2003-12-15T13:50:51Z")
[sub]Dude. North Korea have some scary-ass nukes! Let’s attack Syria, and say they’re hiding Iraq’s WMD’s. Whaddayasay?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/115 "2003-12-15T13:54:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by World Eater \* > \*\*Good, so who’s next? > > North Korea? I hear they have some pretty nice death camps over there. Let’s bring them the wonderful light of freedom post haste! \*\* Well why not? Because some poor peasant was born in North Korea means that she should be killed because of it, or be forced to toil in work/death camps? I don’t know where you live so this may not apply to you: If the Governor of Oregon decided to torture and murder thousands of his states citizens would you object to the Federal government putting an end to it? You probably wouldn’t, so is that peasant in NK worth less than a citizen of Oregon? ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/116 "2003-12-15T13:58:28Z")
Wasn’t Saddam supposed to be hiding in Syria? How hard was it to check Tikrit, considering it’s his home town? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/117 "2003-12-15T14:00:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*[sub]Dude. North Korea have some scary-ass nukes! Let’s attack Syria, and say they’re hiding Iraq’s WMD’s. Whaddayasay?[/sub] \*\* How about Sealand, when will they be held accountable? I ask you, Does a country’s ability to nuke the shit out of people over-ride the rights of its people from being brutalized and killed at the random whim of a dictator? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/118 "2003-12-15T14:03:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Uzi \* > \*\*Well why not? Because some poor peasant was born in North Korea means that she should be killed because of it, or be forced to toil in work/death camps? > I don’t know where you live so this may not apply to you: If the Governor of Oregon decided to torture and murder thousands of his states citizens would you object to the Federal government putting an end to it? You probably wouldn’t, so is that peasant in NK worth less than a citizen of Oregon? \*\* As much as I would love to eradicate pain and suffering from the face of the earth, I hate to tell you that it ain’t gonna happen. Are you seriously suggesting we go knock out every single dictator on the planet? ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/119 "2003-12-15T14:03:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*Diogenes the Cynic \*\* > There aren’t any “goods,” **Airman** dream the fuck on. > > Not that it would matter if there were. _Ex post facto_ evidence cannot retroactively justify the invasion. It’s completely irrelevant what we find _now_. So, by this logic, they could say it doesn’t metter if they ever found W’sMD in the first place, all they had to do was say they were loking for them. Can’t have it both ways, it either matters whether we find them or it doesn’t. (Mind you, I don’t care one way or another, but this statement seems more than a little disingenuous.) ---
**Author:** ![thinksnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thinksnow/32/2849_2.png) [@thinksnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thinksnow)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934/120 "2003-12-15T14:05:02Z")
…doesn’t\* matter\*…were _looking_… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/everythings-cool-saddams-been-arrested/218934.md?page=7)