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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 12/29/2006 : 23:25:49
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Iraq's 5th President succumbs to respiratory complications of tyranny
Baghdad, Iraq, December 30, 2006 (WNN) -- Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, age about 69, died early this morning due to respiratory problems considered by physicians to have been an inevitable result of a life-time of hard-driving leadership. Saddam was a former President of Iraq, having served in that office from July 16, 1979 to April 9, 2003.
President Saddam Hussein with
daughter Rana. "I did it my way."
Saddam Hussein was born into poverty in the village of Al-Awja, near Tikrit, Iraq, around 1937. Without his biological father around, childhood was tough for the boy. His stepfather treated Saddam cruelly, and so he ran off at ten years of age to live with his loving maternal uncle, Khairallah Talfah, in Baghdad. Uncle Talfah was an Iraqi nationalist, and had a great influence in Saddam's youthful idealism. At age 20, Saddam joined the Pan-Arab Ba'ath Party.
In 1959, Saddam got involved with the CIA in an assassination plot aimed at strongman General Abdul Karim Qassim. Saddam was shot in the leg in the botched assassination attempt, but escaped with the aid of his CIA handlers. He was then re-trained in spycraft by the CIA in Beirut.
One act of violence led to another, and before you knew it, Saddam was President of Iraq.
His time in office was not all pleasant. Iran was attacked, Kurds were gassed, Kuwait was invaded and looted, Shi'ias were massacred in the south. Thousands were tortured to death, mistakes were made. But during all this hardly a single Iraqi in the country had anything bad to say about Saddam, or at least not twice.
Good old days: Birds of a feather, Saddam and Rumsfeld.
After the United States and Great Britain assumed administration of Iraq in 2003, Saddam became extremely reclusive for several months, savoring his own company after a career of having to be social at all times. But it seemed to many that he'd dug himself into a spider-hole of asociality by being a little too reclusive. Finally, Americans persuaded him to "come up for a breath of air," and he reappeared at last on the world stage.
Saddam Hussein spend much of his final years dealing with the minutiae of complex legal difficulties relating to his service as President.
Iraqi Sunnis remember Hussein as a stylish man, capable
of making colors go well together by Presidential decree.
Kurds mourn Saddam.
Baghdad crowds bid ex-President adieu.
Funeral arrangements for President Hussein are still being finalized, but it is already known that he will be buried in an anonymous shallow grave in some dust-swept and remote desert wadi.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/02/2007 01:19:39
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 02:06:01 [Permalink]
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And now, the video, which is, predictably, all over the internet....
And on a related matter, also predictably, he's come back to haunt us! quote:
People seeing Saddam's ghost in Baghdad public areas
Media Release
Dec. 31, 2006
In a most bizarre stories ever heard, some people in Baghdad are claiming that they are seeing Saddam's ghost in Baghdad public areas. Sources say, this may be a plot by the Baathists to keep Saddam ‘alive' among the Sunni communities.
Some claim he is seen in restaurants, markets and so on. It is possible many Saddam look-alikes are now more prominent and people are mistaking these look-alikes as possible Saddam. It is also possible that Saddam was such a threat that people just cannot believe he is dead and not coming back.
None of these possible ghost sightings are confirmed by any reliable sources or Iraqi authorities.
Of course, Saddam will haunt us for a long time to come, figuratively if not literally, and indeed; predictably.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 03:01:51 [Permalink]
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The hanging pretty much followed a predictable plot. Looks like it was taken with a cell phone cam.
The Saddam ghost sightings after the hanging bring up the question of how Iraqi skeptics are dealing with this phenomenon.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 03:38:56 [Permalink]
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Excellent aubituary, HalfMooner!
...but filthy, was it really necessary to post the link to that video?
Considering that most of us think the death penalty is abhorrent, at least I think we should grant a dying man his privacy.
Which reminds me, I need to read Rapture Ready to see how they react. More than half of them would happily be the ones tightening the noose of Saddam. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 04:38:59 [Permalink]
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Thanks, Mab. I tried to write it somewhat like I did my Gerald Ford obituary, so I skipped direct mention of the death penalty and the hanging. Saddam was a monster, and yes, he was partially a creation of the USA.
(BTW, my favorite part was the guy holding up the painting (?) of Saddam dressed like a colorblind Munchkin. But that's just me.)
BTW, I respect but don't share your feelings about the posting of the hanging vid, Mab. I can't see anything wrong with showing the truth, and the nature of that hanging was much less gruesome than many things I've seen on the news, as Saddam fell out of sight before the slack was out of his noose.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 01/02/2007 04:49:14 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 04:43:12 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
Excellent aubituary, HalfMooner!
...but filthy, was it really necessary to post the link to that video?
Considering that most of us think the death penalty is abhorrent, at least I think we should grant a dying man his privacy.
Which reminds me, I need to read Rapture Ready to see how they react. More than half of them would happily be the ones tightening the noose of Saddam.
Nah, not really. It is in very poor taste. But, if there is one thing that a skeptic must have, it is a willingness to face reality. The video, as foul as it is, is reality.
The message here is not the lynching of Saddam, but the all-too-human reflex of gloating about it, and showing it like it was staged and showcased in the Roman Coloseum, rather than a shabby, little one-time jail.
As for Saddam's dignety; how much of that quality did he allow his own victims? I find myself a little short of sympathy.
But I do have questions. Chief among them is: what was the big hurry? Another is: was the Bush administration pressuring (I'd almost bet on this) the Iraqis to get it done so that evidence of his collusion with former Republican administrations be buried with him?
In any event, anyone who does not want to look, needn't. I myself, only watched a bit of it.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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