# Saddam Sentenced To Die **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 5, 2006, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174 "2006-11-05T10:06:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/41 "2006-11-06T16:07:51Z")
[I Will Gladly Repay You Thursday, for a Verdict Today:](http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2006/11/saddam_verdict_.html) > [@](#): > > The full verdict, a document of several hundred pages, explaining how and why today’s judgment was reached was not released. U.S. officials said it should be ready by Thursday. So why issue the verdict today? U.S. court advisors told reporters today it was delayed mainly for technical reasons. All insist the verdict was not politically timed and that it was an Iraqi decision; there is no reason to doubt their word. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/42 "2006-11-06T16:27:17Z")
So a suspended sentence? I expected it. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/43 "2006-11-06T17:21:03Z")
While I can’t honestly say I’ll shed any tears when Saddam swings, my own opinion is he should have been given a life sentences to rot away in some room in isolation. Looking at the man, I can’t think he’s going to last for decades at this point in any case…and a caged old man is much less a threat than a hung former dictator…IMHO anyway and given the current mood in Iraq. But then, its not really up to us here in the US in any case…the Iraqi’s decided that this was the course they were going to take. Hopefully they are doing the right thing here. -XT ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/44 "2006-11-06T17:48:45Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Because it makes Saddam a martyr and fuels the insurgency all the more. [/QUOTE] Probably. But that doesn’t make it self-defeating. The purpose of the trial is to achieve justice, not to pander to the prejudices of any particular demographic. I’m anti-death penalty myself, so I would prefer to see him rot in jail. But this was an Iraqi court guided by Iraqi law, so my opinion is not relavent. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/45 "2006-11-06T18:10:15Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] This would just give some future deposed tyrant an opening to say “ **Mad-ass I was ere I saw Saddam** ”, for which the penalty should be death. [/QUOTE] Almost! Good try, though. I don’t mind the guy swinging at all - but is it worth 3,000 US dead and more Iraqi dead than Saddam killed, by a long shot? I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/46 "2006-11-06T21:53:37Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] But this was an Iraqi court guided by Iraqi law . . . [/QUOTE] 😛😛😛😛😛 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/47 "2006-11-06T22:01:47Z")
It wasn’t BG? -XT ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/48 "2006-11-06T23:30:28Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] Best let him rot in a cell rather than become a symbol. [/QUOTE] If he is dead, there will not be hostages exicuted when he is not released. Won’t stop the hostage taking, but I don’t see that a dead martyr is more effective than an imprisoned martyr. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/49 "2006-11-06T23:39:28Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] Probably. But that doesn’t make it self-defeating. The purpose of the trial is to achieve justice, not to pander to the prejudices of any particular demographic. [/quote] I’m talking about the sentence, not the verdict. Justice would be just as well served by giving him life in a concrete box and it wouldn’t be as self-defeating (for a fledgling Iraqi government) as creating a martyr for the insurgency. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/50 "2006-11-07T01:08:41Z")
To paraphrase a wise rabbi… Let him with no crimes against humanity cast the first stone… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/51 "2006-11-07T01:22:45Z")
[QUOTE=xtisme] It wasn’t BG? -XT [/QUOTE] “American policy” is not spelled I-R-A-Q-I-L-A-W. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/52 "2006-11-07T04:58:21Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] “American policy” is not spelled I-R-A-Q-I-L-A-W. [/QUOTE] No, its not…as the Iraqi’s have their own laws and their own courts, and set their own policies. Glad we agree. 😛 -XT ---
**Author:** ![Smooth\_Jack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Smooth\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smooth_Jack)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/53 "2006-11-07T13:58:29Z")
[QUOTE=kingpengvin] \*\*I have a feeling this will not help anything. Best let him rot in a cell rather than become a symbol. Imagine the power of a leaked photo of his hanging body. \*\* Remember, so far the current US government is Batting 0 when it comes to anticipating the reactions of the Iraqi people to actions thus far. The United States has screwed it’s image over several times in this region, this is likely only to make it worse Aside from being an act of pure vengence, what will the Death penalty do? Discourage people who are already willing to become suicide bombers? [/QUOTE] He would still be a symbol as a prisoner. Besides, the most important message to come out of this is that the new Iraqi government is strong enough to execute the tyrant. That’s a message most Iraqi people can relate to. It’s closure. Hopefully, we won’t have to worry about leaked pictures. Becuase, hopefully, it will be a public execution. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/54 "2006-11-07T15:44:46Z")
[QUOTE=Loopydude] Saddam is on my short list of people who maybe have earned an execution [/QUOTE] Shame on you, don’t you know how soft and chewy he is inside? From [the Beeb](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6123526.stm); > [@](#): > > “I call on all Iraqis, Arabs and Kurds, to forgive, reconcile and shake hands,” the former president told the court in a separate trial for genocide [QUOTE=Loopydude] I actually think, however, that it would be far more useful, and much more of a punishment, to have him rot in prison [/QUOTE] Absolutely, my thoughts on all such people. You can only kill someone once, unless you intend to slowly torture Saddam to death, hanging lets him escape the pain he meted out to his people. And it would be a calming measure perhaps to let people know that things were bad before the invasion too by having him in a cell somewhere in Iraq. (OK, not _as_ bad or worse by any means, but bad nonetheless, no breeding nostalgia, that’s for sure) ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/55 "2006-11-07T22:33:36Z")
Too good for him, spending the rest of his natural life on solitary confinement would be more appropriate. [QUOTE=Smooth Jack] Besides, the most important message to come out of this is that the new Iraqi government is strong enough to execute the tyrant. [/QUOTE] Killing is very easy, on the other hand what better message of the strenght of a goverment to say “yup!, we still have the bastard locked up in a cage, and he´s staying there until he croaks” Let him wither and slid down the depths of pathetism and oblivion, it´s the worst a megalomaniacal like Hussein can get. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/56 "2006-11-08T13:33:59Z")
Have you considered that he might not be a bastard ? Holding Iraq together was pretty hard Going off topic, Napolean apparently (and I cannot cite) was keen on doing a deal with the British. As you have probably heard, Ba’athist party members are being offered a Persilschein (that is German for so called de-Nazification for competent and necessary state functionaries). The trick is to invade a state, but keep the adminstrative infrastructure intact, gradually you can replace it, or it replaces you. Supposedly the CIA (or OSS) learnt as much from the Abwehr as NASA learnt from Wernher Von Braun and his mates - can’t cite - no internet when told that. My take is that if Saddam had taken English lessons he would still be running Iraq, and the daily death toll would be miniscule. ---
**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:** [November 8, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/57 "2006-11-08T14:03:46Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] Going off topic, Napolean apparently (and I cannot cite) was keen on doing a deal with the British. [/QUOTE] Napoleon once thought of joining the Royal Navy. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174/58 "2006-11-08T16:06:19Z")
[QUOTE=FRDE] Have you considered that he might not be a bastard ? Holding Iraq together was pretty hard. [/QUOTE] There’s a difference between necessary ruthlessness and selfish cruelty, and Saddam was well into the second realm. Also, if holding it together was and is that hard, it should have been/be partioned into more stable, smaller nations. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/saddam-sentenced-to-die/379174.md?page=2)