Ode to Saddam

[Conan]

A world without Saddam is a world I don't want to live in. For all the bad things said about the man I could never bring myself to dislike him.

When Saddam came to power he brought unity to a divided country riddled with tension and conflict. Throughout his regime he managed to modernize the Iraqi state. He took the money made from the sell of oil and poured it into the economy's infrastructure, bringing roads and utilities to nearly every region. He created unprecedented welfare and development programs for his people. He invested vast sums into what would become one of the highest quality educational systems in the Middle East. He industrialized the country's agriculture and developed the nation's economy to the point that people were coming into Iraq to find work. He gave women rights not afforded to them in other Arab states, many of these women receiving high positions in government and industry. He created a Western-style legal system. Saddam gave Iraq the tools, economically, industrially, educationally, to allow it to succeed in the modern world.

Saddam was a man who loved his people, his wives, and American movies. He had a real passion for life and lived it to the fullest, sure he used chemical weapons on his own people and executed dissenters, but alas such is the nature of leading an authoritarian government in an inherently divided country.

Saddam, If I could I would bring you here and we would watch American movies together. I am not sure where all the hate for you comes from. Perhaps it says more about the heart of the world for your heart was surely a benevolent one.

Farewell, my friend. I will see you in heaven.

http://content.clearchannel.com/Photos/international/Mideast/Iraq/Saddam_Capture/saddam_on_trial_Pool1.jpghttp://untruenews.com/images/saddam-disguise-1.jpghttp://www.fumento.com/img4/saddam.jpg
http://www.newint.org/issue354/Images/saddam-hussein-1.jpghttp://www.buddaheadonline.com/loudmouthsoup/uploaded_images/_41359211_saddam203bafp-771994.jpghttp://www.poorwilliam.net/pix/saddam_exam.jpg

[omnirook]

A world without Saddam is a world I don't want to live in. For all the bad things said about the man I could never bring myself to dislike him.

When Saddam came to power he brought unity to a divided country riddled with tension and conflict. Throughout his regime he managed to modernize the Iraqi state. He created unprecedented welfare and development programs for his people. He invested vast sums into what would become one of the highest quality educational systems in the Middle East. He took the money made from the sell of oil and poured it into the economy's infrastructure, bringing roads and utilities to nearly every region. He industrialized the nation's economy to the point that people were coming into Iraq to find work. Saddam's regime game women rights not afforded to them in other Arab states, many of these women receiving high positions in government and industry. Saddam created a Western-style legal system. He gave Iraq the tools, economically, industrially, educationally, to allow it to succeed in the modern world.

Saddam was a man who loved his people, his wives, and American movies. He had a real passion for life and lived it to the fullest, sure he used chemical weapons on his own people and murdered dissenters, but alas such is the nature of leading an authoritarian government in an inherently divided country.

Saddam, I am not sure where all the hate for you comes from. Perhaps it says more about the heart of the world for your heart was surely a benevolent one.

Farewell, my friend. I will see you in heaven.

http://newsfromrussia.com/images/newsline/saddam_hussein.jpghttp://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/09/09/knSADDAM_narrowweb__300x391,0.jpg
http://www.newint.org/issue354/Images/saddam-hussein-1.jpghttp://www.buddaheadonline.com/loudmouthsoup/uploaded_images/_41359211_saddam203bafp-771994.jpg

When the US needed him, Saddam Hussein was the Arab world's golden boy. He could do no wrong. That the US sponsored him for a long list of humanitarian awards, even an award from UNICEF for what he was doing for Iraqi children, is forgotten. That the US supplied him with and encouraged him to use his WMD's (chemical weapons) is overlooked, not mentioned. Once American policy changed, once the US decided to remove Saddam, over night he became "the butcher of Baghdad" - this should be a lesson to any leader who thinks that trusting the US is a good idea. Getting rid of Saddam Hussein served several purposes: the removal of a strong leader who was doing things w/an oil rich country that American oil companies did not like - principally educating the native coolies who were born for only one purpose - to sweat and grunt and groan while they supplied the oil that America so greedily guzzled - and also he was hated by Israel, the only country in the world whose lobbyists do not have to register themselves as lobbyists, so that they can exert an unprecedented influence in American politics. Even British lobbyists have to register - which should tell our friends in the UK something if they do not already know it (The British have never been stupid, so I am sure that they do!) ... Saddam Hussein was a patsy, a scapegoat ... a diversion. Ah, well, he's as dead as Julius Caesar - or soon will be, so ...

[NoahFence]

Won't the real Hussein please stand up (http://toccionline.kizash.com/movies/the_real_hussein/)

[Lurker]

*sniffle*

Esteban, that beautiful tribute touched me like no other.

[NoahFence]

Iraq would be so empty without me (http://toccionline.kizash.com/movies/iraq_without_me_-_the_real_hussein_ii/)

[Stoned_Rider]

Saddam once made a public visit to a school. All the children were supposed to shake hands with him and tell him how great he is. One of them didn't. He just stood there, refusing to shake hands. When Saddam summoned him and asked him what's wrong, his reply was: "My dad spits on the TV whenever you come on".

I don't even need to say what happened next. Or shall I just say, what Saddam did next was a pure and true act of love towards his people.

Is this my reason for hating Saddam? No. But perhaps it will make you fucking think.

[intpgolfer]

Saddam once made a public visit to a school. All the children were supposed to shake hands with him and tell him how great he is. One of them didn't. He just stood there, refusing to shake hands. When Saddam summoned him and asked him what's wrong, his reply was: "My dad spits on the TV whenever you come on".

I don't even need to say what happened next. Or shall I just say, what Saddam did next was a pure and true act of love towards his people.

Is this my reason for hating Saddam? No. But perhaps it will make you fucking think.

And the supreme being will ask - who has killed more Iraqi's - the leader of Iraq or the leader of america. And what was the justification?

[Stoned_Rider]

And the supreme being will ask - who has killed more Iraqi's - the leader of Iraq or the leader of america. And what was the justification?

The supreme being wouldn't be such an ignorant fool. He would add a third option: TERRORISTS.

[Krill]

And the supreme being will ask - who has killed more Iraqi's - the leader of Iraq or the leader of america. And what was the justification?

And the supreme being will know it was the leader (http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/13/iraq.graves/) of Iraq. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3253783.stm)

[Serotonin]

Yeah, he deserves it. The questions that bug my mind though are:

1) Is the hangman any more righteous?
2) What's more satisfying, seeing Saddam hung or seeing the smiles wiped off the faces of those rabid anti-war loony lefties? :p

[Ferrus]

I'm sure the news of a high profile execution will rally Bush's Texan supporters out to vote.

[Lurker]

I'm sure the news of a high profile execution will rally Bush's Texan supporters out to vote.

That was my first thought, too. Bush always gets good news when he needs it.

[Serotonin]

Hah! A conspiracy theorist may even see the hand of Rove in the timing of this event.

[nomir_dva]

Perhaps they'll televise it on the major networks so that the citizens of the free world might witness what happens to an enemy of Democracy.

[azurwarrior]

I'm dissapointed Sadaam is getting off so easy. I'd have loved to see him turned over to his victims!
(The ones who survived, that is).
Let THEM mete out justice to him!
No quick hanging for him, either, I'd bet.

[omnirook]

I don't approve of the death penalty under any circumstances.

For a society to hold that killing is wrong except in self defense*, then to execute somebody who is quite locked up is blatant hypocrisy. It comes down to revenge and courting the favor of a blood-thirsty mob - and retaining for the government the right to murder people. Rather than allow a government to kill people, I would put people like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in jail for life.

*It should be noted that under American tort laws, killing in self-defense is very limited: one must have one's own life threatened, and there must clearly have been no way to stop one's attacker short of killing him. If one has a gun and one's attacker has a club, the law does not allow one simply to put a bullet in the attacker's head, no. One may shoot the attacker in the arm or leg or some other non-vital spot. Many has been the person who has been shocked to find out that he is going to jail for having pumped bullets into an attacker. "But he had a knife and was coming right at me!" Sorry, if you had shot him in the leg, you would have stopped him. What you did amounts to manslaughter. It's called "excessive force." If a government expects people to obey such rules, then it itself should obey them. But ours does not. Waco, Texas was a perfect example. The government over-reacted - and got away w/over-reacting. The same went for Ruby Ridge. Why should a society have such rules in place? Simple: to prevent people from using "in the heat of the moment" arguments to get away w/pre-meditated murder. Our whole legal system is built on the premise that people can control their behavior. To let that go would be a death-blow to civilization. We turn over our quarells and out-right fights to a third party, the government: for the government then to become violent is a betrayal of that trust.

[frunobulax]

I've never read a poem more lovely than this.

[FranG]

I don't approve of the death penalty under any circumstances.

For a society to hold that killing is wrong except in self defense*, then to execute somebody who is quite locked up is blatant hypocrisy. It comes down to revenge and courting the favor of a blood-thirsty mob - and retaining for the government the right to murder people. Rather than allow a government to kill people, I would put people like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden in jail for life.

*It should be noted that under American tort laws, killing in self-defense is very limited: one must have one's own life threatened, and there must clearly have been no way to stop one's attacker short of killing him. If one has a gun and one's attacker has a club, the law does not allow one simply to put a bullet in the attacker's head, no. One may shoot the attacker in the arm or leg or some other non-vital spot. Many has been the person who has been shocked to find out that he is going to jail for having pumped bullets into an attacker. "But he had a knife and was coming right at me!" Sorry, if you had shot him in the leg, you would have stopped him. What you did amounts to manslaughter. It's called "excessive force." If a government expects people to obey such rules, then it itself should obey them. But ours does not. Waco, Texas was a perfect example. The government over-reacted - and got away w/over-reacting. The same went for Ruby Ridge. Why should a society have such rules in place? Simple: to prevent people from using "in the heat of the moment" arguments to get away w/pre-meditated murder. Our whole legal system is built on the premise that people can control their behavior. To let that go would be a death-blow to civilization. We turn over our quarells and out-right fights to a third party, the government: for the government then to become violent is a betrayal of that trust.

Yeah I agree with you and I agree with your first post too about how the Americans held Hussein in high regards then turncoated on him. Yeah the death penalty is stupid and contradictory. You think that most people would get that but apparently not. Like Agent Smith said on the Matrix, human beings are a cancer to this planet; they go from place to place and suck up all the natural resources and leave death and destruction in their path. No country in the modern world has done that more so than our country folks; sorry to say. If anybody should get the rope, it should be Bush and his homies, as well as the Republicrats in Congress for turncoating on the American people and pledging their allegiance to Lord Bush.

[fripping]

sure he gassed some kurds and blew up some israelis but who wouldn't? he was a cool guy in his off time anyway.