# It's 10pm EST Friday...Saddam is being hanged... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 30, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068 "2006-12-30T03:04:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/1 "2006-12-30T03:04:22Z")
So Saddam Hussein is at the gallows a this moment, possibly swinging gently as I type. I can’t say I feel good about it. Justice? Meh. Just another man dead at the hands of his fellow men. I feel graet sadness for those who died by his hand, but feel no joy at his death. ---
**Author:** ![Aunt\_Flow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Aunt\_Flow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aunt_Flow)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/2 "2006-12-30T03:09:46Z")
I’m oddly conflicted. While I’m not totally against the death penalty…something about this makes me feel uneasy. Like…I don’t know, I can’t explain it. It doesn’t seem right somehow. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/3 "2006-12-30T03:15:44Z")
[QUOTE=Aunt Flow] I’m oddly conflicted. While I’m not totally against the death penalty…something about this makes me feel uneasy. Like…I don’t know, I can’t explain it. It doesn’t seem right somehow. [/QUOTE] As if a million voices cried out in terror, and then were suddenly silenced? ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/4 "2006-12-30T03:16:21Z")
Like Aunt Flow, I’m not totally opposed to the death penalty, but think something doesn’t seem right about this. More and more, I feel like Orwell was right when he wrote [Revenge is Sour](http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/essays/revengesour.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/5 "2006-12-30T03:18:28Z")
[Reports say he’s dead.](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417269) ---
**Author:** ![Aunt\_Flow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Aunt\_Flow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aunt_Flow)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/6 "2006-12-30T03:19:33Z")
[QUOTE=Revenant Threshold] As if a million voices cried out in terror, and then were suddenly silenced? [/QUOTE] No…more like. Well…I guess the closest thing is I almost feel sorry for him. Which is ridiculous, I know…given everything he’s done…but ugh…I hate not being able to express myself. I just don’t know. Everyone’s making such a huge deal out of this but what is it really going to accomplish? ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/7 "2006-12-30T03:26:23Z")
[QUOTE=Aunt Flow] I’m oddly conflicted. While I’m not totally against the death penalty…something about this makes me feel uneasy. Like…I don’t know, I can’t explain it. It doesn’t seem right somehow. [/QUOTE] Yeah I know what you are saying. We just executed the former leader of a nation. When was the last time something like that happened? I know it was an Iraqi court, but for all intents and purposes it will be viewed as an American verdict. I don’t know. I am just uneasy about the repercussions of us killing a leader, depotic though he was, of another nation. I am also against the death penalty. I think even Saddam Hussein is a precious child of God. Killing him because he killed others…where is the sense. It reminds me of something I heard about the execution of Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh went to Iraq in the First Gulf War and was appalled at the human cost and collateral damage. He was further outraged by the senseless deaths of those who died when the ATF raided the Branch Davidian compund in Waco, TX. He decided to give the USA a taste of its own medicine, to let us know collateral damage, so he bombed the Federal Building in OK City to illustrate how collateral damage was wrong. We caught him, and executed him to show that killing to prove killing is wrong, is wrong. Stop the train. I want to get off. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/8 "2006-12-30T03:30:01Z")
**newcrasher** : ISTR you and I having butted heads on somthing or other in the past. However I must say that I agree with what you have just posted. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/9 "2006-12-30T03:34:40Z")
[QUOTE=Aunt Flow] Everyone’s making such a huge deal out of this but what is it really going to accomplish? [/QUOTE] All our guys can come home now? ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/10 "2006-12-30T03:35:53Z")
[QUOTE=Aunt Flow] No…more like. Well…I guess the closest thing is I almost feel sorry for him. Which is ridiculous, I know…given everything he’s done…but ugh…I hate not being able to express myself. I just don’t know. Everyone’s making such a huge deal out of this but what is it really going to accomplish? [/QUOTE] Yes, I have this nagging pity for him. And I know how irrational that sounds. I guess I imagine him experiencing a loneliness and loss no one else can share, in that he went from proud leader of a nation, repected and feared, to being led to the gallows having lost everything. The ultimate failure. Yet he is repsponsible for the deaths of 10s…100s? of thousands…a very evil and merciless killer. Gah. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/11 "2006-12-30T03:36:24Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] All our guys can come home now? [/QUOTE] I’ll believe it when I see it. Sorry, that’s just my opinion. I hope they do get back home, but … ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/12 "2006-12-30T03:37:14Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] **newcrasher** : ISTR you and I having butted heads on somthing or other in the past. However I must say that I agree with what you have just posted. [/QUOTE] I think we may have butted heads a long way back, but since then I have had serious changes in my views. I would imagine we agree on more these days, unless you have recently become a Neocon or something… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Aunt\_Flow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Aunt\_Flow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aunt_Flow)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/13 "2006-12-30T03:38:51Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] All our guys can come home now? [/QUOTE] How would his death accomplish that when his capture and fall from power never did? Bush is never going to bring anyone home while he’s in office. If anything, this will fuel the fire and cause retaliation by certain sects in the Middle East. To which Bush will reply “We need more troops!”, which…unfortunately…has already been mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/14 "2006-12-30T03:40:03Z")
Sic semper tyrannis ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/15 "2006-12-30T03:46:10Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] Sic semper tyrannis [/QUOTE] Only those tyrants who have been turned against by the foreign administrations who had once backed them. There’s others still running around. Maybe it’s a message to the others to keep in line? ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/16 "2006-12-30T03:46:30Z")
OK, now to be completely irreverent… The [Fark.com](http://Fark.com) headline reads: “Saddam Hussein Officially Begins Homosexual Relationship with Satan” Dat shit ain’t right! Sorry. I will now return to being conflicted. ---
**Author:** ![fisha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@fisha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fisha)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/17 "2006-12-30T03:46:49Z")
Good riddance to bad rubbish. ---
**Author:** ![Savannah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Savannah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Savannah)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/18 "2006-12-30T03:54:31Z")
I don’t know how this is going to make anything better over there. It’s (the invasion of Iraq) still a colossal bungle, I think, that will take the future to give it true perspective. Hussein was a wretched human being. But he had very little, if anything, to do with 9/11. Death for death… I, too, can’t quite express myself tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/19 "2006-12-30T03:57:37Z")
[QUOTE=newcrasher] Yeah I know what you are saying. We just executed the former leader of a nation. When was the last time something like that happened? I know it was an Iraqi court, but for all intents and purposes it will be viewed as an American verdict. I don’t know. I am just uneasy about the repercussions of us killing a leader, depotic though he was, of another nation. I am also against the death penalty. I think even Saddam Hussein is a precious child of God. Killing him because he killed others…where is the sense. It reminds me of something I heard about the execution of Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh went to Iraq in the First Gulf War and was appalled at the human cost and collateral damage. He was further outraged by the senseless deaths of those who died when the ATF raided the Branch Davidian compund in Waco, TX. He decided to give the USA a taste of its own medicine, to let us know collateral damage, so he bombed the Federal Building in OK City to illustrate how collateral damage was wrong. We caught him, and executed him to show that killing to prove killing is wrong, is wrong. Stop the train. I want to get off. [/QUOTE] It just felt like a US backed kangaroo court with a very quick execution. No years of appeals like we are used to, I don’t like the feeling I get, either. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2006, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068/20 "2006-12-30T03:58:45Z")
I feel sorta like I felt when Ted Bundy was executed. It’s like wow, they really did it. He’s not in the world anymore. I’m curious about the mindset of the Iraqi judges, the judges who denied his appeal, and the executioner(s). What are they thinking and feeling now? Are they scared out of their wits? Was it just another day on the job? I also feel like the other shoe’s gonna drop. Guess I’ve been properly terrorized. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-10pm-est-friday-saddam-is-being-hanged/386068.md?page=2)