Pakistan-Afghanistan Relations: The Choice Between Alliance and Acrimony

#117 zeemax, are you all right? Did the New Year`s start a little too early for you? What the hell are you refering to any way? Didn`t the muslims win already if islamic iran was behind the hanging (or ``political assassination`` as aptly descirbed by the Hamas) of a secular man?

About islamists prevailing - what are YOU doing about it - isn`t it all just talk?

Ok I read your post ... soysauce ...

The Islamists shall prevail ... that is the destiny.

We shall win ... you wil see ...

#110 by soysauce on December 30, 2006 10:29am PT

zeemax, you say iran hanged Saddam and you also claim it`s the ``mussalmans`` who are the target. So which is it?

Iran is not Muslmaan? First reaction.

Iran is a bit further than Musalmaan, which I am not. Iran is Momin, which I am.

I`ll read the rest of your mail ...

#112 by arjun2

Arjun this is a faked pic. No photos have been released yet.

Please feel free and cheer on the hanging of a Musalmaan when the real photos are released. Maybe tomorrow. You won`t have to wait that long ...

#109 by tahmed32

I`m against death penalty of any kind. If you do not have power to give life, you do not have power to take it away. And Allah is the judge ... noone else.

#103 by tahmed32

Shallow ... nothing more.

Do you remember ``And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted nevermore.``

Edgar Ellen Poe.

Cheers.

Many of you may be familiar with Riverbend, a female Iraqi blogger. Her take on the new developments (written before Saddam`s hanging) are very interesting. She claims Saddam had some shia supporters as well.
Her blog is linked via antiwar.com
Please donate to antiwar.com if you feel like it. It`s a shoestring operation and they are ahead of everyone else in linking to news items related to the middle east and to a lesser extent, asia.

zeemax, you say iran hanged Saddam and you also claim it`s the ``mussalmans`` who are the target. So which is it?
Saddam came to power by killing and having killed some of his political enemies. No point in shedding tears for a MURDERER. Besides death is probably what he prefered anyway to being locked up with no future. He must have known, despite his courtroom rants and apparent delusion that he was no longer the president of anything. Death was merciful. Killing him without a trial as his sons were killed would have preserved the myth of a powerful man who went down fighting. The trial was designed to render him impotent and have him killed anyway. Ultimately his IRAQI enemies took revenge, abetted by the US.

There are war criminals in the US in powerful positions - such as Bob Kerry - who massacred dozens of vietnamese villagers in a fit of rage - who would never be tried anywhere, not even in the court of public opinion. It does seem hypocritical that this be so, but the important distinction is that the war criminals of the west perpetrated their crimes against foreign populations whereas our criminals take it out on our own populations. When your own people are turned against you, you have undercut your position. What Bush did in fallujah and what Saddam did in dujail are roughly comparable. But Bush`s crime is against an enemy country and Saddam`s was against his own people. Hence, in the eyes of the world there is no moral equivalence between the two.

HP: The picture of Saddam with a noose around his neck and without a hood was obviously taken with a view to releasing it to the press to show it was Saddam being executed. Perhaps the hood was placed after this picture was taken, perhaps not. News releases dont say anything yet.

Also, even if the hood was not placed on his head, it is not correct to say that the hood is always placed on the condemned man`s head - historically, the hood has sometimes been removed at the request of the condemned individual himself.

Any death - including this one - is a cause for sadness. As very nicely explained in the lines from John Donne that I quoted below: ``Any man`s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.`` But then, it is also true that sic semper tyrannis (Thus to All Tyrants). All true, even though sad.

Tahmed,

The Hood is always placed on the person who is being hanged. His pictures are not displayed and his dead body is respected. The US has not a done anything and that will go down as a crime against humanity. They did all that for what? to justify a dubious and unsupported decision to escalate the war in Iraq against the wishes of the American people.

#105 by HP <<< All dictators must see what awaits them. Whether friends do it or the foes, they should pay a price for depriving their countrymen of basic human rights. >>>

Like I said, he wasn`t hanged for crimes against humanity but for opposing the colonials who didn`t respect the basic tenets of how a just punishment is carried out in his farcial trial. On the other hand, the standard you are applying should apply to US presidents who are elected in quite non democratic ways and deprive their own countrymen and indeed the world (through their policies) of basic human rights.

HP: While I agree with most of your post, this man you quote complaining about the hooded executioners forgets that a hood is traditionally worn by executioners. And what is ``motley`` about them?

#89, 101 by masadi


Sadam was dead the day he was arrested. I only wish that it were the Iraqi people instead of an occupier that hanged him. He committed numerous crimes against his own people and I see no reason to worry abt the farcical trial or not. He probably sent many people to the gallows without proper trials himself. All dictators must see what awaits them. Whether friends do it or the foes, they should pay a price for depriving their countrymen of basic human rights.

What is really deplorable is the way his death is being shown on TV and in the news media. This has to be the lowest point for the International and especially the US media. Let me explain why this is being done.

The decision to hang him was made within the last week or so, when the US president couldn’t find any justification for the designed escalation in war in Iraq which is being sold as surge. Now the resulting riots or the protest would be used to justify that surge/escalation. That is the reason the media was given videos of his hanging with clear shots of his face and his dead body. The purpose is to run those images on international as well as in the Iraqi media to encourage people to riot and demonstrate against the US in Iraq.

This has to be the most pathetic way a civilized people like the Americans are being used by a morally bankrupt administration that is bereft of any political ideas to hide its defeat in Iraq. Imo, the US, by showing his images have stooped to the absolute lowest. The pitiful situation shows how low this administration would go down to not admit its humongous mistake of starting a war based on lies and sheer deceit.

I don’t care about Sadam’s death, what I see here is that the whole episode is designed to scuttle the common desire of the American people to end the war. A desire they so democratically showed in the last elections.

Americans will and are catching on to this:

“at the photo the NYT is leading with on its homepage, I am struck by the motley bunch of executioners. Hooded to protect their identities, they look like a gang of toughs from a B movie--or, on further reflection, like the hooded terrorists who in the earlier days of our occupation were murdering hostages like Nick Berg, on camera, for maximum shock value.”
-John Marshal

tahmed writes <<< masadi the shameless liar: i wont dignify your crap with a response. >>>

When stumped, the dimwit A-hole will respond with meaningless slogans. There is more dignity in a rat`s fart than anything you possess tahmed, your responses and your posts are worthless bs.

zeemax: you have chosen to pass judgement on what I wrote with the benefit of ignoring what I wrote. this makes your judgement meaningless.

On the other hand, I pointed out the absurdity in what you wrote about the iranian bomb as being some kind of retribution for the saddam execution when I wrote this: As for the iranian bomb, saddam started the Iran-Iraq War that lasted 10 years and cost over a million lives. So dont talk of the iranian bomb as being some kind of retribution for saddam`s execution.

Of course this is shallow analysis - what you wrote is so absurd, it does not require a PhD thesis to dismiss it!!