"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" - Mahatma Gandhi

I guess in this case it all boils down to what you personally believe since there is really nothing we can do now. I am still in debate if this "universal justice" revenge mentality was absolutely necessary even in this extreme case.

Well, on second thought I was taking the ideas of morality in the saying a little extreme. On second glance I can see the betterness in compensating for the loss of an eye through materials rather than giving up an eye of yours yourself. I think if it were accidental than it is up to the injured to decide whether there should be payment or not. I don't know why, it just feels right.

I wish I could find his execution video with subtitles.

^ I think that's revolting. But I don't get why people want to see that video anyway.

- Rexy

A snuff film with a famous star. Who wouldn't want to see that?

In western culture, only those with serious issues.

I'm going to be perfectly honest with you why I watched that video - It's because something inside me was sure he wasn't dead - I knew logically that he must be, but it was just this feeling I had. I watched it to get rid of my strange suspicions, and that's all.

Then again, Saddam did have 'copies'... but enough with conspiricy theories :p

I don't understand why it's so widespread. On the day of his execution, pretty much every film on the YouTube front page was either a mock-up of his execution or the actual video of the events.

I appriciate your reply, if anyone else watched it, why did you? I want to know simply out of curiosity; I personally don't see what anyone would get out of a movie of someone being killed.

That made me laugh. :P +5 points

- Rexy

I watched it inadvertantly several goddamn times. News stations showed the death squad lynching in prime time repeatedly and without warning. Only in America is soft core pornography considered more offensive than a goddamn snuff film.

My dad downloaded a video of it. lol... Glad it happened, but now we'll probrably get bombed while we're sleeping. -_-

Your Dad downloaded a video of if?

Christ, what an example.

Hey I didn’t even state my opinion I was just stating a fact. Because Mitsur said, “So, it's happened. Saddam got hanged. Not exactly the best way to die.”

Hm, I wondered why myself, why. But I guess it wouldn't be up long before someone shut it down. He is very... against those kind of things. Like Censorship and whatnot.

To be honest, I really don't know what to think about this whole thing. I mean, on the one side, we've gotten rid of, and made an example of a dictator that was responsible for killing thousands of people. But on the other hand, we have glorified him in his nation, and stooped down to his level. So, I really don't know.

If anything, I think we should have kept him in a prison of some sort, in a tiny room where no one would be able to speak to him, and let him live out his days in complete and utter isolation. At least then, he just might have thought about what he had done, and it would surely be much more psychologically painful to deal with being confined in a small room for years, than being hung quickly and knowing that relief from the pain you are feeling at the moment is right around the corner.

But isn't that against human rights... The Geneva convention [I think it's called anyway]?

- Rexy

I don't think so, I mean, in prison they put people in soletary all the time, to my knowledge.

They never put people in solitary confinement in prisons. Ever.

It would send a person crazy to be in solitary confinement. I think you've been watching to many old war movies.

More about the Geneva Conventions.

- Rexy

We make rules for war. To the human race, it's just another game.

I actually was thinking about that, and kind of thought that we should have done that instead.

(I am having thoughts of Saddam standing in front of some guy named Earl.)

That would be the point :p.

If it doesn't exist, then when they caught him, they should not have released it to the public, taken him somewhere, and imprisoned him in that way. That way, no one would know about it, so no one would be able to stop it, despite what laws an acts have been passed.

David Hicks has been in solitary confinement in Guantanamo since March and will be for the forseeable future.

Really? Then I was right, they could have just put him in soletary.

Score one for snuzi :).

Although it's always possible that the new Iraqi government care about human rights...

Under Islamic law? Yeah, and Ken Lay was a socialist.

Well then it would ahve been fine if they did the deed in Iraq, wouldn't it? And it'd be more of a punishment for all the crimes he had committed.

Oops, sorry then. But I actually don't think it's fair to put someone in solitary confinement.

- Rexy

Why not? Would you prefer if they were killed, rather than be put there?

I do. It depends on the person though. Compare Martha Stewart with Josef Mengele. The person in confinement definately should be someone that is severely sociopathic or someone who, depsite the level of security, has great potential to escape.

Hn... I'm not sure what I was really saying there. What I meant was I thought it was better to kill Saddam then to put him in solitary confinement.

However, I'm probably being crap in thinking that the death penalty should apply to one when it doesn't for others.

[*Devils advocate*] But if the person was a mass murderer and had a high-potential to escape, who also showed no signs of remorse and wanted to kill s'more people. Wouldn't it be better to humanely kill them than risk the lives of other innocent people?

- Rexy

I dunno, I'm tempted to favor the death penalty a lot, but if we kill one man, then that just opens up a door for us to push the letter to kill other people under lesser convcitions.

I just can't stand the idea that we, people who consider ourselves to have humanity, to treat people decently and generally be above filth like murderers, would so willingly, even demand, to commit the most barbaric act permitted by law. I just can't fathom how we could possibly condemn a man for doing such things, and then go ahead and do it ourselves.

It's just so medieval. I thought, hoped, that we were better than this.