# Saddam on a hunger strike?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-on-a-hunger-strike/344561
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [February 15, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-on-a-hunger-strike/344561 "2006-02-15T00:11:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2006, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-on-a-hunger-strike/344561/21 "2006-02-26T08:43:24Z")
I’d just like to say that the idea that Saddam might actually be serious about his little stunt is positively hilarious. For a hunger strike to succeed, the striker has to convince people that he’s willing to die for his beliefs. But a dictator like Saddam is profoundly narcissistic - he has to be - and does not believe there is anything greater than himself. In his worldview, other people should die for him, and not the other way around.
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### Author:  [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2006, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-on-a-hunger-strike/344561/22 "2006-02-26T11:00:33Z")
> [@alaricthegoth](#):
>
> what do you mean “merely”?
>
> I actually was meaning to reply to MH’s use of the suicide model as a cover for medical intervention-hit the wrong quick reply box and picked up your explanation of what I’m getting to–arguably force feeding a person to prevent suicide could be conceded by a doctor to be unethical if the patient were in sound mind, but it probably would not be seen by a doctor as torture, whereas from an existential point of view, forcing someone to live under conditions he has made manifest are worse than death to him, and doing so, moreovetr , so you can exploit him for information or propaganda purposes (ie, the foregone pr cost of his death by self starvation) is torture of the soul.
Sorry, ‘merely’ should have had quotes- it was my intention to imply that that was the view of the apologists for the US forces behaviour at Gitmo. I thought that you reply was a little quizzical and was trying to make sense of it.
The argument that I was having with **MH** was about the possibility of different views of morality in different jurisdictions. He seemed to have some problem coming to terms with the fact that what is current practice in US prisons and ethical in US Society is seen as tantamount to torture in UK prisons and as unethical in UK Society.
Sorry for the confusion.
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### Author:  [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-on-a-hunger-strike/344561/23 "2006-02-26T14:49:11Z")
> [@Alessan](#):
>
> I’d just like to say that the idea that Saddam might actually be serious about his little stunt is positively hilarious. For a hunger strike to succeed, the striker has to convince people that he’s willing to die for his beliefs. But a dictator like Saddam is profoundly narcissistic - he has to be - and does not believe there is anything greater than himself. In his worldview, other people should die for him, and not the other way around.
I don’t think you have exhausted the potential motivations that might lead saddam to a hunger strike, and you underestimate the resources he would bring to that enterprise if he undertook it.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2006, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-on-a-hunger-strike/344561/24 "2006-02-26T16:11:07Z")
> [@alaricthegoth](#):
>
> I don’t think you have exhausted the potential motivations that might lead saddam to a hunger strike, and you underestimate the resources he would bring to that enterprise if he undertook it.
I understand the motivations. It’s still a bluff.
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