Saddam Hussein is captured!

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

Anyway, I'm always wary of "celebrating" this kind of thing too much, I don't know why. I'm aware that he was a "terrbile dictator," and that most likely the accounts of his violence and inhumanity are based in truth, but it's hard for me to celebrate the downfall of any individual. Is it a good thing that he was removed from power and has been prevented from returning to it? Probably, but I feel ill-equipped to judge that. This may be against the tide of popular opinion, but for some reason I hope that he is treated with the kind of mercy and humanity that he himself denied to his adversaries.

I hope this post doesn't make anyone mad. I'm not exactly inviting him over for tea or anything... Even if we see him as a monster, though, I just hope (for our own sakes) that we treat him as a person.

Nicely put. I'm relieved that he is no longer at large. I don't know what I'd want the next step to be. I didn't see the news reports, but it sounds like he looks pretty sad and disheveled. I agree, as horrible a person as Saddam is, I really can't get any pleasure at the thought of him being tortured/killed/whatever. I'm just glad he's no longer able to do those things to others.
Erin

 

[anathema]

It's kinda funny when you get your major world news from a Muppet forum. lol

Heck, Slashdot carried this story! And I fully expect my other tech news-sites to have it later today.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I know, and its about time, he is a awful awful man, hes as bad as Hitler, if not worse. He had meet grinders, vats of acid, and other things that he put his OWN people though. He teseted Biological wepons on his own towns, those people died a verry painful and long death, childern, parents, andimals. When a guy was disrespectful of him, he did not go after him, but his family. its just so sick and wrong, those people needed our help, we did not just go in to see if he had wepons of mass distruction, that was only part of it, those people were screeming for help. but anyway, thats my take on it, my family is all Air Force...

I agree, but we have to remember that we supported Hussein for a long time prior to the Gulf War. The man was on the CIA's payroll and the people of Iraq suffered in large part because the US and it's Western Allies supported Sadam in his war with Iran in the 80s. We also sat by and watched while he built weapons of mass destruction to gas Iranians en masse. We only got uppity about it when he started cutting off our oil supplies and threatening to gas us instead of Iranians.

Hussein is a lot of terrible, evil things but he's not a Hitler. Not even close. He's not even a Stalin. While Hussein is an evil S.O.B. and I certainly hope Hussein is brought before a war crimes tribunal or eaten by a pack of wild, rabid dogs (either works fine for me) I do think it's dangerous to compare today's tyrants to Hitler, whose evil is pretty much incomparable.

The real lesson to take away from this mess is that it's dangerous to support dictators and tyrants, even if it is politically convienent. The dictator you befriend today will be training terrorists who want to kill you tomorrow.

I'm not a fan of Bush, but I hope his vision of a democratic midddle East happens. We've supported Tyrants like Hussein around the world too many times. The West has to lead the rest of the world, and the rest of the world deserves better.

All that said, I have a lot of respect for the men and women of the US forces who are serving in Iraq. I did not agree with the war and how those troops got there - the American people were lied to by the White House - but it's a great and honourable thing that they are doing now, risking their lives and assisting with the rebuilding of Iraq.

 

[Mark Filton]

Ah, Buck Beaver, I don't think you could say all that if you weren't in Canada and being protected by our United States forces next door

You might be in a torture room now if you said that in Kuwait and were captured by Hussein on the border

Ah, but I could be wrong. Who knows?

I am even an immigrant, and became a US citizen only 7 years ago

 

[Thijs]

The good news is: that creep Saddam got captured!
The bad news is: Bush gets the credit, and has a bigger chance of being re-choosen.

 

[Beebers]

The U.S. is honest about having passed through a time of variant levels of ill-advised support to governments which should never have been supported. We have paid dearly for those times and everything we do now is with the idea of rectifying and moving forward to a more positive world.
Hussein's arrest was imperative. Iraqis have had to live under the burden of possibility that he would someday return to rule. The Iraqi Governing Council will try him fairly and publicly under the tenets of International Law for crimes against humanity.
Hussein treated no one humanely, not the least two of his own grandchildren and both his sons-in-law, all four of whom were mere footnotes on his successful murder list.
But, yes, he will be tried humanely and treated humanely during that time.
Dictators are inhumane to their people, and to their families.
Josef Stalin's own son Yakov, captured by the Germans during WWII and offered back to his father in a P.O.W. exchange, was left to rot there by Stalin. His other son died of acute alcoholism.
Nicu Ceaucescu of Romania, son of the dictator, kept rape rooms and died of drink.
Hussein's sons' exploits are well-catalogued.
These only some of the personal legacies dictators bestow, to say nothing of the public, social destruction.
If we did not stay the course today, this war would be taking place here, with homicide bombers in our streets. Let us hope it does not come to that. Hussein's arrest is one step toward that goal.

 

[Beauregard]

Actually, I wasn't 'rejoicing' but I was putting across the facts and saying that I am sure that things will smoothen out somewhat from this point (For how long, no one knows...!!!???)

Actually, I was praying for the man yesterday at an Alpha Course, after all he is a person and God still loves him.

PS. Skeeter. Te, he, he, I got a nice avator, I got a nice avator, te, he, he.

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

That *is* a really fun avatar, Beau!
Erin

 

[AndyWan Kenobi]

Actually, I wasn't 'rejoicing' but I was putting across the facts and saying that I am sure that things will smoothen out somewhat from this point (For how long, no one knows...!!!???)

Actually, I was praying for the man yesterday at an Alpha Course, after all he is a person and God still loves him.

Well put. I couldn't agree more.

I've always felt that even the cruellest of people must have some redeeming quality. It doesn't negate the evil that they do in any way, but there has to still be something good in every person. Maybe that's a little too "redemption of Darth Vader"ish or something, but there still has to be some vestige of humanity left...

 

[Don'tLiveonMoon]

Well put. I couldn't agree more.

I've always felt that even the cruellest of people must have some redeeming quality. It doesn't negate the evil that they do in any way, but there has to still be something good in every person. Maybe that's a little too "redemption of Darth Vader"ish or something, but there still has to be some vestige of humanity left...

As Anne Frank said, "I believe, despite everything, that people are good at heart." Or something to that extent, and she certainly was someone entitled to believe otherwise. I love the ending of "Return of the Jedi." What an incredibly satisfying conclusion. It's not too often in movies where the arch-enemy is able to find redemption. When it happens, I love it.
Erin