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Related Information to Post War IraqPost War Iraq - Page 101 of 171
130 Americans died in October. 130,000 Iraqis - Page 101 - Politics, Business, Civil, History - Posted: 13th Nov, 2006 - 8:33am
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So, now that the USA left Iraq can the country rebuild herself and become stable? Related Information to Post War Iraq
Post War Iraq - Page 101
| QUOTE (CNN) |
| Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging for crimes against humanity. |
Is anyone surprised? When he is gone it will be the end of an era, and end of a time when Middle East dictators simply take power and run their country as dictators.
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Post War Iraq History & Civil Business Politics
The war hits us again, and quite close to home.
| QUOTE |
| HEMET HIGH: Three have been killed since June -- two in October. The funeral for one is today. 10:00 PM PST on Wednesday, November 1, 2006 By JAMIE AYALA and JOE VARGO The Press-Enterprise HEMET - The 2,600 students at Hemet High School usually concentrate on academic studies, college or future careers. In recent months, the students have had to come to grips with another subject: death. Four Hemet High School graduates have been killed in the fighting in Iraq. Three have died since June, two in October alone. No other Inland high school has experienced such a loss, and only a handful across America have suffered as much. "It makes war very real," said the school's principal, Bill Black. "We've had more than our fair share of casualties in this war." The first blow fell in January 2004, when Army Spc. Jason Chappell, 22, died in a roadside bomb attack. Marine Cpl. Michael Estrella, 20, died last June when his patrol came under enemy fire. 10 Days Apart Twenty-year-old Army Pfc. Kenny Francis Stanton Jr.'s death came Oct. 13, and just 10 days later, Navy Corpsman Charles Otto "Otter" Sare, 23, was killed. Both died in roadside bombings. Sare's funeral is today at 10 a.m. at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints off Kirby Street in Hemet. Riverside County has borne a significant cost of the war in terms of human loss. Twenty-nine county residents have died during the fighting in Iraq -- 1 percent of U.S. deaths since the war began. Fifty-three Inland residents have died in Iraq since 2003. ..."How can you measure the loss of potential to our community?" asked Fetherston, 71, who served during the Korean War era. "They might have gone on to be a cop, a fireman, a sheriff, the mayor or a congressman. They would have made this a better community. We don't know what we've lost." |
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The funeral was standing room only, filling to capacity the chapel and several auxiliary rooms.
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Page 101 Iraq War Post
I think Saddam's death sentence offers limited comfort to the families of those he killed. It certainly isn't the end of dictatorship in the Middle East, but is the end of one the region's worst dictators.
I"m not entirely sure why Messrs Bush and Howard are putting a positive spin on the hanging. Of course the decision is well-timed for a Republican party desperate to show Americans the Iraq invasion wasn't a total failure, a claim that Iraqi officials have made against Washington. But it won't do anything for the stability of Iraq. If anything, I fear Saddam's death sentence will cause reprisal violence by hard-line Sunnis. Perhaps a life sentence in one of those horrible jails would have been more poetic justice for the evil dictator. There he would be tortured and suffer in the same way he made thousands of others.
IMO, the whole problem with the sentence is that was flawed. It's the right verdict, but an illegitimate one. While there is little denial of Saddam's role in several massacres resulting in 100,000s of deaths, the court proceedings were not independent. Saddam was also banned from revealing sensitive information that might embarrass Iraq's new allies. He was not allowed to reveal his relationship to the Americans, British or other western allies during the trial. Any reference to Western allies who supplied the tyrant with chemical and biological agents during the massacres he committed was also formally forbidden. How can someone defend themselves by being muzzled? If you watch the proceedings, at times it resembled a circus. This form of wild justice has little basis on law. So now we have a dictator who will be appropriately hanged, but with a revenge laced noose and on illegitimate grounds.
A lot of people might say who gives a stuff, the bad guy got what he deserved. Well I personally think Saddam deserved a lot worse than death by hanging! That is the easy way out for this evil man. But the problem is that we do not support illegitimate sentences in other countries, so why now?
When the Iranian revolution took place and the Western-backed Shah was ousted, similarly illegitimate public trials were conducted on thousands of Iranians who were suspected or linked to SAVAK, the Iranian secret police. These men were never given a fair trial and almost all killed. This caused mass outrage from the West at the time. You can draw some similarities between the way those trials were conducted and Saddam's. The shame is Saddam deserves everything he gets as far as I"m concerned. But those families who suffered under him deserve the right for their dictator to be put away under a cloud of justice, not revenge.
It will be interesting to see how Iraq reacts to this. There will be celebrations, no doubt. Let's just hope this isn't followed by an escalation of violence.
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Iraq War Post
Now here is an interesting twist. We have the war in Iraq, Bush has Democrats in the Senate and Congress, Bush has a Secretary of Defense that also worked with his father dealing with the same War in Iraq, and so the question now is... what next? How will it play out now?
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Post War Iraq
It's not over. This will still drag on for years. Here's one indicator, from Forbes:
| QUOTE |
| A Staggering New Bill For Iraq? Jessica Holzer and Matthew Swibel 11.09.06, 6:00 AM ET The U.S. armed services have requested a $160 billion supplemental appropriation to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the remainder of fiscal year 2007--a staggering amount that, if approved by the Defense Department, may hasten the showdown between resurgent congressional Democrats and the Bush administration over the budget-busting War on Terror. The request--which will likely include all costs related to the war on terrorism--far surpasses the $94 billion supplemental authorized earlier this year to fund the ongoing wars as well as hurricane recovery in the Gulf and is nearly double the $82 billion Iraq war supplemental outlay of 2005. It comes within days of Republicans' stunning losses in the midterm elections and the resignation of embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was set to decide on the request Nov. 15. |
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Post War Iraq - Page 101
From what I can gather I think Iraq will end up in a similar situation to Afghanistan, at least in the short term. The US and British will pull out a large part of their military within a year or 18 months, but leave a much smaller contingent in place for the medium to long term.
There will be a continuation of violence between rival groups within the country. Security wont be achieved for quite some time. I doubt Iraq's security forces, the police and military, will ever be equipped to achieve stability in the current climate. Especially as they contribute to a lot of it. The trick will be how the Iraqi government can find a way forward. I believe there is a role for an International peacekeeping force in the region, but true reform has to come from within. It probably requires a hard-man to control the country. This is the irony of Saddam's removal. The democracy experiment imposed by the US and Britain has bitterly failed. It was a very costly experiment that has killed 100,000s of lives, destroyed billions of dollars in infrastructure and fuelled terrorism in the region. Now it's about damage control and then re-building the mess.
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Post Date: 13th Nov, 2006 - 8:33am / Post ID: #
Post War Iraq Politics Business Civil & History - Page 101
130 Americans died in October. 130,000 Iraqis since the wars beginning. Whats scarier is the death rate (the rate at which people die) is continuing to increase. It is a Sunni verses Shiite civil war, with terrorist coming in and Iranians coming in to the country. Its a mess, a mess we created by removing the dictator. Sure he was horrible, but this mess is worse now. At least he kept the region stable. But its over and done with. Iraq is now (since it wasn't before) become a gathering ground for terrorists. All parties are now killing us. But here is an interesting stat. There are more trained Iraqi police than US soldiers. 300,000 to be precise. So why are we there still? Because the police are fighting on their own sides, they are in a civil war. That is why we can't stay over there. Its not cut and run when no one in the country wants you there. Some times the best option isn't a good option either. We don't have good options in Iraq anymore. Its either years of more deaths of American soldiers, or leaving them in civil war. Neither is a good option. But one of the options gives Iraqis a choice to make about their own future.
TOPIC: Post War Iraq