As you all probably know, Sadam Hussein is said to be executeed within the next day. THe U.S. and Iraqi governments have decided to keep the official date and time of Sadam's execution secret fearing revolts and mass violence. Do we really ahve much to fear or will this be a welcomed milestone to most of the world?

P.S.- they are going to tape Sadam's hanging and I believe televise it at a later date. How cool is that!

BY the way I don't mean it will "free" Iraq, I meant the new free Iraq

Lol, well it looks like you beat me to creating this topic but anyway, first..well for the most part I disagree with both voting options seeing as neither being the definite outcome from Sadam's death. If there is violence I'm pretty sure it wouldn't last too long, I've heard they plan to execute him in a couple of hours and that it will be recorded but I highly doubt they would release it at a future date, seems that the military wants to keep it for future records. Who knows maybe it'll find its way on youtube.

Well, he's met his maker. Saddam was hung a little after dawn in Baghdad.

Check out his farewell letter: Here

I tihnk he should have been thrown in jail for life just in case a few of the radicals do see him as a martyr now and will increase the violence.

On the other hand, he is finally gone which might lessen the violence

He certainly deserved what he got.

I don't know what sort of effect Saddam's execution will have on the country. I find the concept that someone will hold him up as a martyr pretty specious, though; hated as the Americans are in Iraq, Saddam was never very popular, and he was a highly secular leader to boot. So I don't think we'll be seeing too many insurgents shouting "Allah akbar Saddam jihad" or whatever.

FacistFalangistFool: The link to the letter that you posted does not work for me. Can you perhaps paste the text, assuming it's an actual translation of the letter and not another article ABOUT the letter?

Eh, it's another article ABOUT it, just selecting a few parts to talk about.

I for one am quite glad that he's out of the picture - it is time that he got justice for the countless deaths for which he was responsible, in a timely manner from a fair court. I think that maybe your options for the poll are a bit extreme, though. I imagine there might be a small spike in violence as insurgents use it as an excuse to launch attacks, but Orborde is right - he wasn't much of a beloved leader, so I doubt it will last long.

It is true I should have made a third more intermediate choice instead of the two extreme. That seems to be the way things are anyway, not much has changed.

One thing does bother me though:

On the news yesterday, some woman was talking about Sadam's execution, saying that it was inhumane and unjust. Her key reason was the taunting of the soldiers and crowd at the execution (If you saw the internet video, you know what I mean). I am wondering how any one can feel sympathy for that man. Was it not but a few years ago when American soldiers' dead bodies were being dragged through the streets and pelted with garbage as people burning American flags lined the streets. How can anybody say that Sadam's hanging was inhumane, unjust, or otherwise?

Not only that, how can anyone say that he should be able to get an appeal or possibly not be guilty when Americans knew clearly he killed innocent people. What more evidence do you need? He was a dictator and a violent one at that. Were not his actions inhumane? It's called an eye for an eye. And sure, "it makes us all blind" as some people say. But a world full of blind people can't go to war, can it?

... I can't decide whether to be indignant, disgusted, amused, encouraged, outraged, or just surprised by that statement.

Well, I meant it as a bit of comic relief. So, I'd hope you would be amused. But hey, think what you may =].

Ugh. Libya is building a statue of Saddam Hussein.