hanging sadam_1.jpg[REVISED]
Saddam (may his named be blotted out) was executed on the 8th of Tevet, the same day that Adolph Eichmann was sentenced to death 1961. Saddam )may his name be erased and trashed forever) was a bad man, and no amount of apologetics from ultra-leftists (calling him our dictator) can change the fact that Saddam (may his named be blotted out) was evil, perpetuated evil, even if at times at the behest of other countries. I remember running for bomb shelters and sealed rooms in 1991, donning our gas masks, unsure which of the next scuds was carrying the promised payload of biological or chemical weapons. Boy, that was fun! Saddam (may his named be blotted out) also tortured and repressed Jews in Iraq. A recent Al Jazeera propaganda piece though on You Tube seems to claim otherwise. Did he receive a “fair trial”, General Wesley Clark? Fair trail in Baghdad, yah. He should have been hung the moment they found him in the little pit.

About the author

Rabbi Yonah

87 Comments

  • It doesn’t change the fact that this war of Bushes was very wrong. The real danger to Israel at this time is the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas alliance. Iran should have been attacked as THEY have real nuclear capabilities at the current time.

    It is distressing that everyone is ignoring this, and focusing on trivial matters.

  • “perpetuated evil, even if at times at the behest of other countries.”

    What may be the greatest sin is the way this sham trial was railroaded through so that light would not be shed on the tight-nit relationship between right-wing administrations in the US (notably Reagan’s & Bush I – before Saddam overstepped his bounds, and went beyond their tacit approval for him to take the Kuwaiti oil fields).

    That way there will be no investigation into how or why, or more importantly, from whom, this evil man received the chemical weapons which he so brutally and famously used on his own people, and the Iranians during the war between the two (fought by Saddam with American support, funding, and weaponry).

    Were there any justice left in this world, Saddam would have been tried in International Court, in a fair trial that would have ended with a death sentence. Instead, we get video of his hanging that looks and feels remarkably similar to the videos of inhuman terrorists beheading Nick Berg and others.

  • We should remember Moderchai’s reluctance to take down Achashverus when he had the opportunity to do so, out of fear of who would replace him. That Saddam was evil is not a question. That this war will accomplish anything good is a question. In fact, it tragically seems less of a question every year.

    Ahmedinejad scares me more than Saddam. At least under Saddam, Persia’s power was checked.

  • I sort of couldn’t believe that he was actually executed. They definitely rushed it through too fast… I think it would have been better to let him rot in jail.

    Yes, he was evil, etc., etc., etc., but does killing him change shit in Iraq? Nope, they’re still blowing the crap out of each other over there, “celebrating” his death with gigantic machine guns and so on.

    It just didn’t accomplish anything, and I don’t like the way the government is trying to say his death is a “victory” for the Iraqi people. DEPOSING him was the victory, and frankly, there hasn’t been another one since.

  • Ahmedinejad scares me more than Saddam. At least under Saddam, Persia’s power was checked.

    That’s ’cause Saddam is in a tarp looking way, way over his shoulder. Ahmedinejad is still alive.

    Given that Iran’s threat to Israel (and the wider world) is through nuclear weapons and terrorism, how did Saddam being alive and in charge ‘check’ Iran?

    Left in power, chances are Saddam would have built his own nukes to ‘check’ Iran. So you’ve got the crazy Arab guy, with his two whackjob sons, plus Iran, with nuclear weapons.

    They definitely rushed it through too fast… I think it would have been better to let him rot in jail.

    He killed 100,000s of civilians. Why would it be better for him to sit in jail, watching videos and writing shitty poetry, be better? For whom? I defy anyone to write a ‘top ten evil leaders of the 20th century’ and not include Saddam.

    As for the Iraqi gov’t being U.S. puppets, someone hasn’t been paying attention. The latest is that Saddam was kept awake and humiliated by Sadrist thugs all night. That was before being executed by Sadrist thugs the next morning.

    Another example: U.S. troops catch two Iranians passing advanced IED designs to Iraqi insurgents. The Iranians are Revolutionary Guards, Qods Force – basically the overtly terrorist arm of the Iranian military. One of the two was the number three in the entire Revolutionary Guards Corps.

    Iraqi President Talabani tells the U.S. to let them go. Apparently, the Iranian soldiers-cum-terrorists are ‘diplomats’ – ‘diplomats’ in Iraq on his invitation.

    So is the Iraqi government inviting Iran to build better IEDs to kill coalition troops? Or are they so terrified of Iran that they’re willing to piss off the U.S. to make nice with the mullahs? Either way, if the Iraqi government is anyone’s puppet, it is Iran’s.

  • I, like Kinky Friedman, have no issue with capital punishment as long as they got the right guy. In this case they got the right guy. But to argue Saddam’s evilness being extraordinary vis a vis his persecution of Iraqi Jews seems a little red-herringish. Iraq’s persecution of Jews way preceeded Saddam or even the Baathists. Saddam simply took the persecution to another level, culminating with the public hangings in ’69.

    Is Saddam’s execution any great victory for Jews? Or Iraqi Jews in exile? Are they going to go running back to the “new Iraq” expecting to be treated better than under Saddam? I’m betting… no. As a Jew and human executing Saddam is justifiable revenge. As it would be if I were an Iraqi Christian (especially Tariq Aziz after what Saddam did to his son). But new constitution of plurality or not, Iraq is never going to be home again for Iraqi Jews.

    Before the first Gulf War the U.S. State Dept. saw “no recent persecution” of Iraq’s remaining Jews. Well, for one, duh. There weren’t enough Jews for him to persecute. Saddam basically kept them under house arrest. During the first Gulf War he’d trot them out for propganda purposes, forcing them to make Nuterei Karta-like statements so as to portray himself as not anti-semitic but anti-Israel (while at the same time using anti-semitic rhetoric with the domestic press).

    But why would the U.S., after all it had seen in Iraq, bother to point it out even if it were true? Kinda reeks of strange bedfellows. As they say, we’re just pawns in their game.

  • While I don’t have the names of specific weapons to offer, there is this:The U.S. sold Iraq $200 million in helicopters, which were used by the Iraqi military in the war. These were the only direct U.S.-Iraqi military sales and were valued to be about 0.6% of Iraq’s conventional weapons imports during the war.[28] Ted Koppel of ABC Nightline reported the following, however, on June 9, 1992: “It is becoming increasingly clear that George Bush Sr., operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam’s Iraq into [an aggressive power]” and “Reagan/Bush administrations permitted — and frequently encouraged — the flow of money, agricultural credits, dual-use technology, chemicals, and weapons to Iraq.” The Reagan Administration secretly began to allow Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt to transfer to Iraq American howitzers, helicopters, bombs and other weapons. These shipments were done without the approval of the U.S. Congress and were in clear violation of the Arms Export Control Act as well as international law.[29] Reagan personally asked Italy’s Prime Minister Guilio Andreotti to channel arms to Iraq.[30]

    The United States, United Kingdom, and Germany also provided “dual use” technology (computers, engines, etc.) that allowed Iraq to expand its missile program and radar defenses. The U.S. Commerce Department, in violation of procedure, gave out licenses to companies for $1.5 billion in dual-use items to be sent to Iraq. The State Department was not informed of this. Over 1 billion of these authorized items were trucks that were never delivered. The rest consisted of advanced technology. Iraq’s Soviet-made Scuds had their ranges expanded as a result.[31]

    And this:

    On 25 May 1994, The U.S. Senate Banking Committee released a report in which it was stated that pathogenic (meaning disease producing), toxigenic (meaning poisonous) and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq, pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce. It added: “These exported biological materials were not attenuated or weakened and were capable of reproduction.”[40] The report then detailed 70 shipments (including Anthrax Bacillus) from the United States to Iraqi government agencies over three years, concluding that “these microorganisms exported by the United States were identical to those the UN inspectors found and recovered from the Iraqi biological warfare program.”[41]

  • mc,

    Your own link demonstrates that American support for Saddam was limited compared to other countries. Financially? The Arabs were on top? Weapons? The Soviets. Intelligence? Yep, probably us.

    You can (as I would) make the case that it was short-sighted and stupid to provide Saddam with WMD technology and other support. However… At the time, bleeding an overtly enemy state like Iran was the right choice.

  • Late twentieth-century American philosopher Arsenio Hall once said, “And just remember, Saddam spelled backward is ‘Madd as[s].'”

    It’s better out loud, but you’ve got to love it…

  • Interesting to see this execution was done on a Jewish holy day, same day as Adolf Eichmann’s sentencing.

    I guess this was a kind of “blood libel” celebration, the liquidation of a tribal enemy.

    Unfortunately Ariel Sharon “The Butcher of Beirut” is too sick to go up on war crimes charges for his role in Sabra and Shatilla.

  • All well and good to kill in our name.

    DK is right. Who is going to make Iraq a better place? Saddam was bad. No question, but if was have to ask if his trial or execution were fair or just, then it wasn’t. There is no going back from the end of a noose.

    Not to mention why can’t we do it right here? One has hung a picture while one has hanged a person. Please fix.

  • Redheaded Jewish Girl

    That’s right Alex, a U.S. puppet

    You mean the U.S. was involved in providing the means to prevent an Iranian victory over Iraq? What a shame.

    Where exactly does that article ‘prove’ Saddam was a U.S. puppet? It shows that the U.S. gave Saddam some support in their war with Iran – less support than France or the USSR. Given the amount of Soviet weapons, why isn’t Saddam called a Soviet puppet? All that Arab oil money, why not a Saudi or Kuwaiti puppet?

    As per frickin’ usual, the issue isn’t how bad Saddam was or who supported him, but how terrible America is. Had Iraq not stopped Iran, the mullahs would have pushed through to the Gulf oil fields and created a jihadist, Shia superstate controlling obscene quantities of oil.

    On the one hand, Shiastan might have decided it could take some extra risks in who it blew up. Hezbollah might have put al-Qaeda to shame. 9/11 might have come a decade or two earlier. With all this oil, maybe some nukes would be a good idea? Which one of you super powers wants to trade oil for nukes?

    On the other hand, maybe the world wouldn’t have tolerated that. NATO might have invaded the Middle East, but how can that happen without weakening the line of defence in Europe? Will the Soviets have a go? Even if they don’t, they might strike a deal with Shiastan in exchange for cheap oil. So there’s a Soviet-Shiastan pact and a massive Middle Eastern war.

    Luckily, because someone was willing to make some hard choices, none of that happened.

  • Saddam was bad. No question, but if was have to ask if his trial or execution were fair or just, then it wasn’t. There is no going back from the end of a noose.

    How do you give a fair trial to a guy everyone – everyone – knows is guilty?

    He ordered the murder of those 148 Iraqi men and boys. He did and we all know it.

    As for killing him, no-one is scared of a dead man. No-one is going to try to put him back in power, or kill anyone trying. I think they call it ‘closure’.

  • Closure is a joke. His death will be used by those who want to use it for whatever purpose. Death masquerading as justice serves no one.

    The 148 people killed by Hussein are still dead. His guilt is unquestioned. His right to a fairness is also unquestioned, for when you take away humanity from those it is easy to strip it from, the rights and values of our society will slip away just a quickly as Hussein went limp after the door opened below his feet.

  • The people he killed are still dead. Punishing people isn’t intended to undo their crimes. Water has a somewhat liquid consistency.

    We didn’t take away his ‘humanity’. First, ‘we’ was a bunch of Iraqis – Sadrist thugs who couldn’t reasonably be mistaken for ‘us’. Second, his ‘humanity’ was highly questionable (hence the hanging?).

    Closure is a joke.

    It is in a lot of cases. But if your son was electroshocked before watching his wife gang-raped? Knowing the man who had that done – whose power and reach was beyond dispute – isn’t coming back is pretty damned important.

  • We didn’t take away his ‘humanity’. First, ‘we’ was a bunch of Iraqis – Sadrist thugs who couldn’t reasonably be mistaken for ‘us’.

    Right like the democratically elected by less than 50% of the population and protected by both US Army Special Ops and CIA folks are really not us.

    I do not have any experience in said gang raping or electroshocking: But that may be because I live in freedom…not to get all flag waving here but really it is about the rights everyone has. Even the US government headed by fry’em and let God sort them out former Gov Bush said this was a rush to execute.

  • What’s contemporary Jewish teaching (if there is such a monolithic thing) on capital punishment? ‘Eye for an eye’, etc.? I see the Vatican, which categorically opposes capital punishment, issued a statement regretting the execution.

    It figures that the Maliki government, with its bottomless incompetence, managed to screw this up, too.

  • A recent Pope, I am not sure which, I don’t think the present one, said that sometimes “society is permitted to kill in self-defense”. I thought that was an interesting way of thinking and I agree. But you know best about what Popes say, of course.

    It’s not a case of “an eye for an eye”. That has nothing to do with it. Wrong passage, wrong reference. That is about “no more than an eye, for an eye”.

    The right reference could be “if someone comes to kill you, you are OBLIGED, NO MATTER HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT IT, to kill him first”.

    Another referenece might be the part about, “Remember Amalek, who killed your weak stragglers, and did not fear G-d”.

    Disclaimer: Your question is rabbinic in nature. I am no rabbi.

    (It is worth emphasizing, loudly, that neither the Jews nor the Americans took the life of this person. His own fellow nationals did, on his own soil, his native soil.)

  • Jewish Mother, there’s an exception for killing as reasonable self-defense, sure. Also under a doctrine having to do with lesser evils, putting Saddam to death may’ve been a lesser harm than allowing him to live on as a figurehead for part of the Sunni insurgency.

    And this was an Iraqi operation all the way, for better or for worse.

  • Right like the democratically elected by less than 50% of the population and protected by both US Army Special Ops and CIA folks are really not us.

    First, most Western governments have less than 50% of the vote. In the UK, for instance, Labour got about 22% of the vote in 1997. I think the number is similar for the U.S. in ’04. Unless you’re going to take the ridiculous position that America and Britain are less democratic than Iraq…

    Western Europe was garrisoned by hundreds of thousands of American troops during the Cold War, and certain Western cities were hubs of CIA activity. As in Iraq, the U.S. was invited by the elected governments of the day. There are tens of thousands in South Korea, thousands in Okinawa, a few hundred in Iceland, thousands in Arab states and still several tens of thousands across Europe. Puppet states all, presumably.

    I do not have any experience in said gang raping or electroshocking: But that may be because I live in freedom…not to get all flag waving here but really it is about the rights everyone has.

    I’m not going to claim that Saddam was on the brink of taking power in the U.S. and inflicting rape and torture upon Reform Jewry up and down the continental United States. But the fact is those freedoms aren’t ‘clean’. They’re soaked in the blood of people who’ve tried to overturn them, and in the blood of people who’ve stood up for them (how’s that for flag waving?).

    Even the US government headed by fry’em and let God sort them out former Gov Bush said this was a rush to execute.

    Uh… so? “Jeb Bush says” is a pretty unlikely argument for anyone, let alone a pissed-off liberal.

  • As a descendant of Iraqi Jews (all 4 of my grandparents), I am very relieved that Saddam has gone.
    I hope and pray that one day there will be yeshivas again in Sura and Pumpbedita- as you know the places were the Babylonian Talmud was written.
    Having said that I don’t think that many of us would go back to live there. But maybe for a visit, out of curiousity, to see a place where our ancestors lived for so long (in my family from approx. 586 b.c.e. until 1918).

  • Dave said:

    I hope and pray that one day there will be yeshivas again in Sura and Pumpbedita- as you know the places were the Babylonian Talmud was written.

    Let’s revive the great Yeshivas in Poland and the Ukraine, while we’re at it.

    /end of sarcasm/

    To quote Pumba: “You’ve gotta put your past in your behind.”

    Let’s revive the Jewish nation. Let’s revive the Jewish land. Let’s revive the Sanhedrin. Let’s revive the Beit Hamikdash.

  • Why not revive the yeshivas in Sura and Pumpbedita, and in Poland and the Ukraine, And revive the Beit Hamikdash?

  • I believe all Jews killed Christ and therefore anyone who takes the life of a Jew has avenged Jesus murder on the cross.

    I can tell you one Jew boy bastard I would like to give a fist in the ass to, and his name is Rick Ross from the Rick Ross Cult Institute. He has attempted to have me silenced, him and his culties. But I won’t be silenced. I will tell my story of how they are trying to take me out because of what I know about Obama.

    I worked in the White House on special assignments under the Clintons and I know all their dirty little secrets and I know what happened to Mrs, Clintons’s lover Vince Foster and now they want to get rid of me before I can sell my story. All money sent to me to help me get my story out will go to help David McKay. You can find me at freedomissacred.

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