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No good answers? Really?

Reader comment on item: Saddam on death row

Submitted by Richard Blom (United States), Nov 20, 2006 at 16:01

Ends D.P.: "There are no good answers".

Yes there are, but simply not possible for a respected journalist to say so publicly and survive professionally. Your short piece is a cautiously balanced exercise as it realistically it must be but I hope you agree there's a piece missing. The hard and, I suppose, awful truth is that he never should have been taken prisoner. I always thought that Mussollni met the perfect, almost poetic end. Unceremoniously hung on a meathook without an ounce of drama. His death remembered as a footnote. Why should it have been otherwise. Perfect!

Whatever the short term firestorm, Saddam H. should have been shot in his spiderhole, photgraphed once, left there or perhaps draped around a rock. The last Saddam anyone should have seen was the filthy baglady of Baghdad we tripped over at the farm. Nobody would have cried for long. Shot and discorded. Simply that. Appropriately that.

Certainly he will be no less a martyr now to those who will care to remember his trial only as a Babylonian Passion play. In this version the Shia and the Americans are both the Jews and the Romans. And there will remain enough photos to keep scrapbooking suicide bombers inspired for decades. In any case, it's hard to imagine an Iraq worst than it is today. Although to think of it, Saddam is still standing and the drama is, unfortunately, not yet over. More photos to come and who knows what else.

RB

Submitting....

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

Daniel Pipes replies:

I mentioned Mussolini and, yes, that would be a good solution. Clearly, however, US troops cannot execute a prisoner vigilante-style. For Saddam to have been gotten rid of like that would have required that Iraqis or someone else find him in that hole three years ago.

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Reader comments (14) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Take it from an Italian [90 words]OctavioDec 2, 2006 17:3968062
Iran's obtaining nuclear power and the U.S. getting out of Iraq [402 words]Lily FlacksNov 30, 2006 12:0367868
Sadaam's Fate [17 words]davodNov 30, 2006 10:3867856
No good answers? Really? [248 words]
w/response from Daniel Pipes
Richard BlomNov 20, 2006 16:0166726
Send him to space [23 words]Hari IyerNov 12, 2006 02:4665893
The Sooner the Better [50 words]Irving WeisdorfNov 11, 2006 20:2465851
Let's be Honest [40 words]Richard WittrupNov 11, 2006 19:2465849
comfortable villas [15 words]ashmaroNov 13, 2006 14:1165849
When is a death sentence NOT a death sentence? [158 words]Stuart TeichNov 11, 2006 18:2365846
When Inside the Box Is Really Outside the Box [139 words]Julian TepperNov 11, 2006 18:0065845
Prisoners [73 words]Bruce BeattyNov 11, 2006 17:4265843
Making progress [132 words]David W. LincolnNov 11, 2006 17:2165842
Put him in a cage as a warning [46 words]Henrik Ræder ClausenNov 11, 2006 16:5465839
Shiite Justice [143 words]David GoshenNov 11, 2006 16:4665838

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Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".

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