Saturday, December 30, 2006

and soooo.... he's dead

Well.... today marks the end of Saddam Hussain. We found out before lunch today and, really, to be honest, I don't agree w/ the death penalty. Even for a man such as that, I don't agree w/ anyone being put to death. I'm sure a lot of it has to do w/ the way I was raised and in a church that is against the dealth penalty or maybe it's just that I have a real problem w/ anyone but God giving death to someone.... because when I look at it, I think, who are we, as humans, to kill another human being.

Some of you believe in an eye for an eye or say that he deserved it because of all that he did to the Shi'a's in Iraq, but even still, I don't agree w/ it. Do I believe he should have suffered in this life, yes... but that can easily be done in prison.

I was watching BBC News earlier and it showed him in the final minutes... walking into the area where they were to hang him - they were talking about the black coat he was wearing to keep from getting a chill and how he refused to put a cloth over his head... just to sit and watch this is something I couldn't do. He was a crazy man, he was a killer, he was a torturer, he was a lot of things... but I couldn't sit and watch what was about to happen to him.

Really, it all makes me feel really sad. I hate when ppl are put to death. Yes, call me crazy if you want and argue w/ me... tell me how wrong I am for my beliefs, how wrong I am to feel the way I feel about this - about a man such as this - but I do.

I know that many are happy, but what will his killing do for the world? Will it calm Iraq? Will it take away the violence in that country? Will it make the ppl happy there? Will it end all the daily killings and car bombings? No. Today, if I'm not mistaken - since his execution - there have been 3 more car bombs that have killed some 50 ppl. I truly believe that everything will escalate now. The U.S. is looking at sending in more troops... troops that aren't there. Will they start to draft ppl again in the States? I doubt it... but, where will these extra troops come from? How long will it be before the U.S. pulls out? How long will it be before the Iraqi forces can feel secure enough to take care of their country? Will it ever happen? Will peace ever come to that country?

There are so many questions, so many things that can't be solved w/ the killing of Saddam Hussain..... but it's too late now.

Well, just found out that hubby has found a clip of the execution online and he'll probably watch it. We are so different in these things.... I can't, I won't watch it. I have a hard time understanding why someone would want to.... but that's just me.

19 comments:

Veeeva said...

did u see how his daughter was talking about him??
its not about what she said, its the way she said it..as if her heart is made of steel!!

my mama was very happy that finally he's dead and kept watching that clip on all the available news channels...
for me death will always be a sad thing..regardless of who is dead.

Puppy said...

I am totally agree with you, Tooners, he could stay in prison, and hanging him was so unhuman, cruel, and so insulting expecially the way they did it, hanging? what century we live in?
I was so sad when i heard and saw it on the news.

I dont think that death will change something in political world, i am even sure it will make it even worse, some ppl will want revenge and etc etc.

and Tooners, congratulations with your all that pinky-girlie blog :))

Anonymous said...

Despite his charisma and popularity among the Sunni population, I never liked the leader and always hoped he would be arrested and put to trial for the things he has done.

To Bush, Saddam's head was just a war trophy, something he'll always brag about to justify going to war. To the Shi'a, Saddam was no worse than the devil; and to them no amount of good karma would have made them turn the other cheek. The Shi'a think that killing him will ease their long time suffering; but will it?

Whose to say that the vast number of armed Sunnis won't retaliate? Just look at the number of deaths that ensued the hanging?

The best way to make a dictator suffer is to sentence him to life and let him watch the country and people he tormented flourish and grow as one...killing Saddam just made him a martyr in the eyes of many...

Um Naief said...

still breathing, no, i haven't seen his daughter talking... but i'd like to see it. what channel has it been on? yesterday i saw a lot of coverage on one of the arabic channels of when saddam was a younger man and such and then today they've had stuff on BBC, but they've also been showing the hanging on BBC, which i have no interest in seeing. sadly, i heard some of the guys who were hanging him yelling things at him and such, which i thought was totally inappropriate... it should have been peaceful for him, i think. i think there are a lot of ppl who are very happy. my FIL was not sad by any means.

puppy, i agree.. i think it was totally inhumane, cruel and insulting. i saw pictures of him dead in the paper today. it made me very sad. thanks for liking the new look to the blog. i was tired of the plain white thing i had going on earlier, and i tried several different ones lastnight and decided on the girly colors! :) it's a first for me! :)l

Um Naief said...

sam, i totally agree w/ you. i think hanging him has made him a martyr and will only make the violence all the worse in that country for the shi'a. the sunni were only waiting for this so they could retaliate, and now i think the coming days, months, even years, possibly, will show tons more aggression towards the shi'a population there, and the killing will only continue. thanks for stopping by.

Ingrid said...

I remember that when we lived in Saudi, we got an invitation to see a friday beheading. My then husband wanted to go and I said, no thanks! I read that they let Saddam hang for 10 minutes to be sure he was dead. I have questions as to how that blood got around the shroud/neck part because with a hanging there should be no blood. It's a pretty gruesome way to go and as much as he deserved to suffer like all the people he terrorized and had tortured and killed, it's also not something I would want to see..
am glad you're off your feet btw Tooners, hope the rest of your pregnancy will be uneventful! Happy New Year!
hugs
Ingrid

Sam said...

mYou're welcome tooners. You know what saddens me the most...? I have many Iraqi friends...both Sunni and Shi'a and each day there's that dark sad worrying feeling at the back of my head that they may have lost a family member in a recent blast. My Iraqi friends, although their people in Iraq are literally killing each other, still remain friends and always give me some sort of hope that those living in Iraq will put aside their differences and reconcile. It all starts with just one family refusing to avenge a family member's death...

Happy New Year

Veeeva said...

it was "al arabia"
*spelling..err*

The Moody Minstrel said...

Both Fox News and CNN posted links to the hanging video on their websites. Fark.com responded by saying:

"Fark won't be linking to the Saddam execution video. We realize CNN and Fox have it, if they want to run snuff films and call it news that's their business"

Go, Fark!

Olivia said...

On CNN we only saw them putting the rope around his neck, but we were still sitting there with the enormity of it going, "Oh my God, oh my God..." because I think we have only seen hangings in movies, and here we were watching it happening to a real person.

As for the other points, no I don't think his death will change anything - it was his overthrow that did that. I think he should have sat in jail for the rest of his life and thought about everything. He may not have been repentant, but at least he would not have become a martyr.

Olivia said...

Moody, most clips are only the moments leading up to it. I doubt a professional news agency would post the actual death but they have made the links to the site that does offer it a bit hard to find.

Gaz said...

I agree with you tooners,who other than go has the rite to take life away,is the death sentance a deterant for crime,the moors murder's (Braidy and Hindley(deceased))were doing their crimes in England when the death penalty was out,didnt put them off!

Um Naief said...

olivia, you are so right... i was the same way when i saw him being led into the room where they were to hang him. i've only seen the stuff in movies and couldn't imagine seeing the real thing. they had pictures of it in the papers the day after and one blog friend, mahmood's den, had pics on his blog of him and such... it turns my stomach.

ingrid, Hi!! long time, no talk. :) you know, they do the beheadings in Saudi all the time... and ppl love watching the stuff. i can't imagine it. my husband went to the place where they do it when he was there for work, but they weren't doing any beheadings that day. i would never watch such and totally disagree w/ it. and... like you, i also wondered where the blood came from because i also didn't think there was blood from hanging. i saw the blood next to his head and on the shroud from the paper... that was my first thought. i didn't realize they left him there for 10 mins. you know, the men who were doing the hanging were saying all sorts of things to him... i felt it was totally inappropriate. here it was his day to die and they're doing this stuff to him. i believe he even said something like, "you call yourselves men"... it made me sad. i also read today in the paper how he'd save pieces of the crust from his bread and feed the birds while in jail... that also made me feel sad.

moody, i've never heard of fark.com.... but i think they're wise for not showing it. while watching BBC the other day, they were showing almost all of it, and maybe they did. i left the room while my husband watched it.

gazza, like you and olivia, i believe that ppl suffer while in prison... our minds can be a terrible thing, and i'm sure he would have, many times over, suffered for all that he did.

Anonymous said...

Tania... You left the room while your husband watched. Your opinions are spelt out clearly. Yet you class as a 'friend' a man who ordered the death of his unborn child, for no other reason than that child would have 'been in the way' of his quest for his own glory? That child, a baby boy, committed no crime. That man lives and breathes... what right does he have to do so? What Saddam Hussain did was heinous. He deserved his fate.

Um Naief said...

anon, i find it odd that you say i class saddam hussain as a friend. where, in my blog, did i say that i consider him a friend? i think you need to reread the blog and then decide. i said very plainly that i disagree w/ the death penalty. i have never agreed w/ it and even w/ this man's death, i still don't agree w/ it. i think we as humans have no right to take another person's life... that should ONLY be in God's hands. sorry if you don't understand. and yes, i left the room when i saw it on the news that they were going to show it, NOT when my husband said it was going to watch it, which is something he didn't do. he was joking.... he didn't want to watch it either, to be honest.

Um Naief said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Um Naief said...

anon, also, if you're so bold as to use my name (meaning that you know me personally), then why not tell me your name? why use anon as your sign in name? i'm not afraid to say that i don't agree w/ the killing of saddam hussain, no matter what. i totally disagree w/ the death penalty, no matter if he ordered the killing of his unborn child. do you think by saying that - and since i'm pregnant - it would have some impact on me? well, there are a lot of ppl that have done similar things and worse to their children, but i still disagree w/ that being a case for them being put to death. i do not believe in such, no matter... and nothing you say will change my mind.

Anonymous said...

Tania... There has been a mis-interpretation of what I said... the 'friend' is not Saddam, but a man who is real to you, a man who you know personally and who you deem to be a 'nice' man. It was THIS man who decided that he should play God and demand that a life be taken. I was making a comparison between the two men. This 'friend' of yours, and of your husband, presents to you a persona of niceness, innocence, and of being a man of morals. Like Saddam, he too sees only himself in the picture, his own 'greatness'. I was not trying to make any impact at all. I would wish you nothing but happiness and joy in your upcoming parenthood. What I also would wish is that the man in question could be exposed for what he is, but I will leave that in the hands of Allah.

Um Naief said...

anon, hmmmm, if i remember correctly, you have mentioned this man or incident before on my blog. if i remember correctly, you were scorned by someone, but what i didn't realize is that it is someone that i know and who my husband knows. do i know you as well or only this man? i have no idea who you are talking about to be honest, but you do have my interest peaked. if this person has hurt you, i'm very sorry for this.