mimo2005

Some U.S. soldiers patrolling Baghdad's dangerous streets Wednesday cheered news of the execution order for Saddam Hussein, but others worried his trip to the gallows could spark a surge of insurgent attacks.

Iraq's highest court rejected the former dictator's appeal Tuesday, upholding his death sentence for the 1982 killings of 148 Shiite Muslims from a town where assassins tried to kill him.

"It's great news," said Army Sgt. Danny Barrett, 25, of Denair, Calif., a soldier in Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment. "It's good for Iraq."

The appeals court said Saddam must hang within 30 days — something Pfc. Michael Petersen said he was not looking forward to.

"I think personally that things might get heated up around here then," said Petersen, a 22-year-old native of Pensacola, Fla., in the battalion's Company A. "There's still a lot of people who support him."

Another A Company soldier, Sgt. Stuart Fowler of Badger, Calif., hopes the execution weakens the insurgency by Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs.

"As long as he's alive, there's still some power and people still rise up," said Fowler, 30. "Once the execution goes through, I think it will be a relief for a lot of Iraqis."

Based in Fort Lewis, Wash., the soldiers went house-to-house in a largely Shiite section of eastern Baghdad for the fourth consecutive day Wednesday, searching for insurgent leaders and weapons.

A pack of children trailed behind, begging for money and candy as soldiers trudged down muddy, unpaved roads past donkey carts, and entered houses where families keep chickens out front. At one point, a pair of quacking ducks waddled across a bustling road.

The troops completed their sweep without making arrests or finding any major weapons. But on the way back to the U.S. outpost where they are staying, a roadside bomb exploded underneath a Stryker armored vehicle, wounding two soldiers — neither critically.

Two hours later, a series of explosions from rockets shook the outpost and soldiers were confined to their quarters after at least two people on the ground were injured.

First Lt. Tom Gaines, commander of Company A's 1st Platoon, said he and other officers talked about whether Saddam's execution could make things more dangerous for the unit, but concluded there was little to fear since their area is populated mainly by Shiites, who were oppressed by Saddam's regime.

"It will have some overreaching effects in other parts of the country but probably not here," Gaines said.

The execution was on the mind of Staff Sgt. Jon Matthews as he moved between homes Wednesday.

"I was interested to come out here and see what the people would say," said the 26-year-old from Dallas. "But it's been pretty calm. People seem pleased about it actually."

Wearing a purple head scarf and surrounded by grandchildren in her living room, Saadia Majed said Iraq's central government was finally showing the country a measure of strength.

"We need the justice system to kill Saddam," she said.

But Majed, a Shiite, said authorities should wait at least three years to hang the former dictator top avoid further inflaming the sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis that has killed hundreds and pushed Iraq into civil warfare.

"Executing him now is dangerous," she said through an interpreter. "The situation is very bad. Things need to be calmer."

At another house, a 53-year-old retired officer in Saddam's army who is Sunni but married to a Shiite, said Iraq was safer under Saddam, when there was no sectarian violence or threat of mass kidnappings.

"At that time, good people weren't killed. Saddam only killed his enemies," said Kalleed, who gave only his first name for fear he would be targeted by Shiite militiamen. "Now everyone is dying, good and bad."

American soldiers acknowledged many aspects of Iraqi life have gotten worse since the U.S. led-invasion.

"When (Saddam) was here a lot of people were better off, especially with the basics like water and sewage," said Spc. Will Tucker, 22, of Fort Worth, Texas. "We are working on improvement programs, but they are taking awhile."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061227/...soldiers_react

Ben123

Weren't Saddam's enemies anyone who disagreed with him?

mimo2005

War was a stupid idea in the first place , tough sanctions would have been a better solution than killing the good and the bad people like the author said in the article .



welcome to TSF ben , i hope you are not jeffdrummer by any chance ?

superflysmith

Sanctions don't work when you've got country doing behind the scene deals.



LOL

Ben123

Me and Jeff are friends. We are both part of the campus Republicans, he told me about this forum... I have been lurking around here for a while, and I decided to join. I called him a dumb a$$ for getting himself banned. Thanks for the welcome, you are a really good forum.

Now, we see how Kim-Jong Il reacted to sanctions in North Korea, he just went crazy and people are still going hungry. Why wouldn't the same happen in Iraq? Afterall we know that Saddam is not all there. I think the truth for all people is we don't know what <i>could</i> have been if we didn't invade. Instead I think we should start talking about how we can win and leave Iraq successfully.

I am concerned about that thing you said about Saddam only killing his enemies. I assume that you consider that a reason for not overthrowing him - he only killed his enemies. Do you think that people who disagree with their leader (that is, enemies) deserve to be killed?

Thanks,

B

mimo2005

I will give you a small list of presidents/kings that detain or kill their ennemies/opposants :


Tunisia
Lybia
Egypt
tchad
Mauritania
Syria , etc etc etc etc
and the list is long ,
probably 25% of the third world countries president kill or detain innocent politicians that are against the president or king .

should we go to war ?

bruiser

So, we should take all of them on or none at all?

mimo2005

No , by economic pressure , by negociations , by rewarding them constantly when they behave in the right way .
There are many ways to show them what is the meaning of democracy .

Ben123

Oh you are good!

No we should not go to war with all those countries, and the list is really long. But this is about Iraq.

Do you think we should have overthrown Hussein when we invaded? Or should we have invaded, destroyed the army and gotten out?

I know you will say that we should not have invaded, but for the sake of the argument assume these are the only two arguments.

What is better destroying a tyrant who kills anyone who disagrees, or let him prance around still killing? I can guarentee if we did the latter that the whole US and Iraq would be furious, and GW Bush would not have been re-elected, and the war in Iraq would forever be known as a failure. Now we are making progress, and I think we are seeing the fruits by the reactions of those celebrating today. Real Iraqis are happy and elated, the terrorists will certainly increase violence to help the Iraqis forget what has been done for them... but the Americans are being seen as liberators, despite what the Kos Kidz tell you.

Ben123

Nice!

Like Oil for Food? Read up on that one, it was a dismal failure.

Aside- how do you stop gtting email notifications?

mimo2005

Dismantling the saddam army and its police was a huge mistake .

Ben123

You didn't answer my question.

But I agree, Bremmer's decision was incorrect. We tried to fight this war in a conventional way at first, and we learned it was not conventional. by covention, you destroy the army, and problem solved... not this time. We made a mistake.

mimo2005

did you subscribe to this thread ?

maybe that why you are receiving those emails .

Ben123

It is subscribing me to every thread I post in, I have gotten more emails today than ever. At least I feel popular!

yustr

Welcome to TSF - its good to see someone from the right - bry623 and bruiser need all the help they can get .

To unsubscribe or only subscribe to the threads you choose to, go to User CP> Edit Options>Messaging & Notifications>Default Thread Subscriptions

mimo2005

Thank you yustr for the Tip .

Wozer

gotta say, I'm against him being executed...for one reason only...I worry that he will become a martyr...he definitely deserves the axe (along with many other 'leaders' on the world) for what he is responsible for, but in his case I do think the repercussions could be harsh and long lasting...

Wozer

my sincerest compliments on being so vigilant in your duties on this forum...you're obviously noting IP addys..time consuming yes, but part of the job when its called for

Ben123

Let me ask, would you be against killing Osama bin Laden? He would surely be viewed as a martyr.

Ben123

I'm not sure what this is about, but I am assuming this is the cold shoulder and "you're not welcome at TSF."