Saddam....30 days and counting

[Pam]

I wonder if we will be told beforehand when exactly it will be. From what I have heard it could be anytime between now and the next 30 days. Supposedly the hanging will be videotaped to prove that it actually occurred.

[trayi52]

Pam, I'm counting the days!!!

Willie

[JenBKR]

I heard about that - they want him hanged within 30 days. Talk about fast! I heard this morning that he will know 'well ahead of time' when the date will actually be. Well ahead of time may mean a couple of hours though.....

[Miss Z]

30 more days then an evil man will be gone forever, good riddance to him.

[critter crazy]

Yay!!!! I am counting down!!!! Good Riddance!!!!!

[momoffuzzyfaces]

I'm hoping they just keep it quiet until the deed is done. Maybe that would keep some of his pals from trying to get him out and keep some of the violence down.

No tears will be shead from me for him that's for sure!

[Laura's Babies]

I had read awhile back that they were having a major problem finding someone to do the deed. They shouldn't give the date, only that it is done.

[Vela]

I'm not going to shed any tears, but I'm not going to rejoice either. Someone's death, to me, even if well deserved, is never a cause for celebration. It's a sad fact they did whatever they did to deserve it, and it should be carried out, but I'll never think it's a great thing.

[moosmom]

I hope they keep it quiet. I know that's asking for alot, however the repercussions by the butt wipes who glorify him will only cause them to seek revenge on the United States. THAT has me more worried than his hanging.

Good riddance to the piece of trash.

[moosmom]

I hope they keep it quiet. I know that's asking for a lot, however the repercussions by the butt wipes who glorify him will only cause them to seek revenge on the United States. THAT has me more worried than his departure. I only hope the U.S. beefs up their Homeland Security.

Good riddance to the piece of trash.

[Logan]

I don't care. I don't even want to know, to tell you the truth.

He is a mere distraction at this point. I want a solution to this war, beyond Saddam, and I want our soldiers to be safe, or at least, safer.

I wish this whole crazy mess could be over sooner than it will be.

[Pam]

I wish this whole crazy mess could be over sooner than it will be.

Logan I am hoping that with a change in administrations that we can bring this to a close. I never thought I would say that but my heart keeps breaking every time I hear of another soldier dying. It is all so reminiscent to me of Viet Nam and the feeling in the country at that time.

I think that President Bush did what he felt was correct at the time and I don't think he had an evil or grandiose intentions. I think he was poorly advised by the people around him. At some point we need to suck it up and get out.

[wombat2u2004]

THIS ARTICLE WAS RECENTLY IN THE LA TIMES.
I'd like to know what you all think about this ????


Jonathan Chait: Bring back Saddam Hussein
Restoring the dictator to power may give Iraqis the jolt of authority they need. Have a better solution?
November 26, 2006

THE DEBATE about Iraq has moved past the question of whether it was a mistake (everybody knows it was) to the more depressing question of whether it is possible to avert total disaster. Every self-respecting foreign policy analyst has his own plan for Iraq. The trouble is that these tracts are inevitably unconvincing, except when they argue why all the other plans would fail. It's all terribly grim.

So allow me to propose the unthinkable: Maybe, just maybe, our best option is to restore Saddam Hussein to power.

Yes, I know. Hussein is a psychotic mass murderer. Under his rule, Iraqis were shot, tortured and lived in constant fear. Bringing the dictator back would sound cruel if it weren't for the fact that all those things are also happening now, probably on a wider scale.

At the outset of the war, I had no high hopes for Iraqi democracy, but I paid no attention to the possibility that the Iraqis would end up with a worse government than the one they had. It turns out, however, that there is something more awful than totalitarianism, and that is endless chaos and civil war.

Nobody seems to foresee the possibility of restoring order to Iraq. Here is the basic dilemma: The government is run by Shiites, and the security agencies have been overrun by militias and death squads. The government is strong enough to terrorize the Sunnis into rebellion but not strong enough to crush this rebellion.

Meanwhile, we have admirably directed our efforts into training a professional and nonsectarian Iraqi police force and encouraging reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites. But we haven't succeeded. We may be strong enough to stop large-scale warfare or genocide, but we're not strong enough to stop pervasive chaos.

Hussein, however, has a proven record in that department. It may well be possible to reconstitute the Iraqi army and state bureaucracy we disbanded, and if so, that may be the only force capable of imposing order in Iraq.

Chaos and order each have a powerful self-sustaining logic. When people perceive a lack of order, they act in ways that further the disorder. If a Sunni believes that he is in danger of being killed by Shiites, he will throw his support to Sunni insurgents who he sees as the only force that can protect him. The Sunni insurgents, in turn, will scare Shiites into supporting their own anti-Sunni militias.

And it's not just Iraqis who act this way. You could find a smaller-scale version of this dynamic in an urban riot here in the United States. But when there's an expectation of social order, people will act in a civilized fashion.

Restoring the expectation of order in Iraq will take some kind of large-scale psychological shock. The Iraqi elections were expected to offer that shock, but they didn't. The return of Saddam Hussein — a man every Iraqi knows, and whom many of them fear — would do the trick.

The disadvantages of reinstalling Hussein are obvious, but consider some of the upside. He would not allow the country to be dominated by Iran, which is the United States' major regional enemy, a sponsor of terrorism and an instigator of warfare between Lebanon and Israel. Hussein was extremely difficult to deal with before the war, in large part because he apparently believed that he could defeat any U.S. invasion if it came to that. Now he knows he can't. And he'd probably be amenable because his alternative is death by hanging.

I know why restoring a brutal tyrant to power is a bad idea. Somebody explain to me why it's worse than all the others.

[mike001]

Wombat, though I have to disagree with you about Sadamm being turned loose, your post was certainly food for thought. It does point to the one thing we always said.....things are a lot worse now.

[Marigold2]

Hi Wombat,
Yes I agree as does my husband. As long as Saddam was in power there was some rule, now there is choaos and our sons and daughters are paying the price. Checks and balances are sometimes difficult to comprehand, but very necessary especially when dealing with the Middle East as they are so bloodthirsty. As a mom of two sons who were in the military, one still is, my child's life is not worth any part of this war. Bush is the biggest embrassment this county has ever had. Now that does not mean that ANY soldier who is there is not a hero, they all are. I am only saying they should not be sent to Iraq to fight this war. Let these people fight their own war and rule their country as they see fit. We should have kept our noses out of Iraq and the world would hate us less. Finally most Americans are in agreement, Bush in a moran. I still don't know how anyone could have voted for him.