The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > General Discussion > May God have mercy on his soul

May God have mercy on his soul

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. ...
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. All
Saddam Hussein died a good death. He looked his opponents in the eye and was defiant right up until the end. I hope whenever my time comes I can go as confidently (and hopefully less violently).

I haven't spoken to anyone today (including people at church - not every Christian thinks like BD) who hasn't felt some sense of regret about his death. It's one thing for a government to send someone, like a soldier, to a place where they may die; it is another to exert the force of the state in a way where a man will most certainly die. I have regrets, but ultimately think it is better Hussein was hung. I don't believe in capital punishment for normal crimes, but his instance is different.

There is no doubt that he was guilty of very heinous crimes. You can quibble about how legally perfect his trial was, but I don't believe that a fairer tribunal would have come to a different conclusion. So one argument against capital punishment - that it can't be reversed if the criminal is subsequently found to be innocent - doesn't apply.

More importantly, while incarceration can deal with the danger that most criminals present to the community, in the case of Saddam, it can't. While he was alive he represented an unacceptable security risk, so it is reasonable and just that he be permanently removed.

But I still feel regret at the necessity of his death. I am also conscious, as he himself argued with his captors, that along with the bad he did some good. Not nearly enough in my mind to redeem him, but who am I to make that judgement?
Posted by GrahamY, Sunday, 31 December 2006 4:43:50 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
While I was one of the people who initially supported the idea Saddam Hussein being executed, it is only now that my young son who is almost ten, told me that you can see pictures on the internet of Saddam's grizzly end. No thanks, but I find it scary that a child that young can see a picture of someone's execution and not be upset by it. He just shrugged his shoulders when he talked about it and described the picture. My eight and a half year old daugher doesn't seem that concerned either, although she didn't see the pictures.

What other kind of end did Hussein deserve? None of us has the power to command his execution, but it is not unfair to say that for his crimes he will not find it easy to meet his maker. Whether or not he is ever forgiven for his crimes is God's decision.
Posted by Quiet Rebel, Sunday, 31 December 2006 5:28:24 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I have no doubt that the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein deserved the death penalty - but I also see little difference with the death squads currently operating in Iraq. Will current Iraqi leaders face the same fate...will George W Bush and will Donald Rumsfeld? I doubt it ... but they are just as guilty.
Posted by freeranger, Sunday, 31 December 2006 7:07:46 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Graham Young rather than “I still feel regret at the necessity of his death.”

I regret the necessity of the death of his victims, which provided evidence of the monstrosity of the man.

Rather than regret the necessity of his death, I regret the occurrence of his birth.

The world is not a perfect place, bad things happen.

We can all work to improve the state of mankind. One way of doing that is to terminate the perpetrators of horror before they add to the count of their victims.

As is written, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”

Hanging Sadaam ensures he will not triumph.

Freeranger “Will current Iraqi leaders face the same fate...will George W Bush and will Donald Rumsfeld? I doubt it ... but they are just as guilty”

I would request you justify that statement
Posted by Col Rouge, Sunday, 31 December 2006 7:39:06 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
The justification for the statement is self evident Col Rouge if you just look at the civilian casualty figures since the war was 'won'.
Leaving aside the US military casualties, reports indicate that over 52,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed and that number appears to be escalating at an almost unimagineable level. Some reports show the current figures at around 200 per day.
Posted by freeranger, Sunday, 31 December 2006 8:34:08 PM
Find out more about this user Visit this user's webpage Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
GrahamY

I wasn't well this morning, so I didn't go to church, so I don't know what my fellow church members feel about this, but have to agree with you about the feelings of regret. On the Christian internet forums that I am part of, most of them American, I find the same feelings of regret that it had to come to this as you state. Especially from people who never expect to feel this way.

Some like me, wish he had discovered Christ.

This is part of what I posted on another discussion on this site:

Pity Sadam didn't find Christ before he died, that's the saddest thing about this whole business. We know he had at least one, I dare say nominal, Christian in his cabinet, Tariq Azziz. If he believed in spreading his faith, obviously Sadam didn't want to know.

The one good thing about Sadam was that he didn't hate the Christians as much as most Muslims. He even allowed the Bible Society of Jordan to set up a Bible printing shop in Iraq.

The Christians of Iraq have been suffering terribly since the war, because they are seen as being on the side of the "invaders" because of their common religion. Many of them have fled to neighbouring Jordan and Syria. The Shiites who are in power want them all gone. Yet the Christians (Assyrians) were there before the Arab Muslim invasions in the 7th or 8th centuries.

We are supposed to believe that the minority Sunnis have only been in power over the majority Shiites since Sadam Hussein gained power. It has been this way for four hundred years, since the Ottoman Turks gained power over this region
Posted by RaggedtyAnnie, Sunday, 31 December 2006 9:18:47 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. ...
  7. 6
  8. 7
  9. 8
  10. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy