Bush calls Saddam conviction milestone in Iraq

[deminks]

WACO, Texas (Reuters) - President George W. Bush hailed the conviction of Saddam Hussein as a milestone in Iraq but Democrats vowed to take the war there in a new direction if they seize control of the U.S. Congress on Tuesday.

The former Iraq president was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to hang by a U.S.-sponsored court in Baghdad on Sunday. Bush did not directly address the death sentence that has been assailed by Washington's close European allies.

"Saddam Hussein's trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law," Bush told reporters in Waco as he left for Nebraska and Kansas to campaign for Republican candidates.

"It is a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," he said.

(snip)

"The Iraqis have traded a dictator for chaos. Neither option is acceptable, especially when it is our troops who are caught in the middle," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

(end snip)

I am hoping that November 7 will be a milestone for the US.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyid=2006-11-05T201647Z_01_N05172859_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-SADDAM-BUSH.xml

[Webster Green]

1. It will be another milestone if the chimp gets the same sentence..

Only then can the healing begin.

OK, I'll settle for a life sentence for the chimp and all his thugs.

[NOLADEM]

9. Those are headstones, not mile stones, moron

[Webster Green]

14. Moran, not moron.......You maroon!

Sheesh!

[NOLADEM]

40. Sorry, I forgot

This election is gonna be HUGH!!1!1! though.

[saigon68]

43. Here is the Moran in Chief

[tandot]

2. Shit. Iraq will get even worse...???

Every time that ignoramus announces a "Milestone" the situation in Iraq gets worse

[stepnw1f]

3. Bush... We'll Make SUre You Get a FAir Trial Too

We'll let you rot in jail for life. Sound resonable?

[Mythsaje]

4. Mind explaining how the conviction and scheduled death

of an already-deposed dictator in any way constitutes a "milestone" in a conflict that has long gone past having a damn thing to do with HIM?

[gorgan]

5. See..

the shites & sunnis will put aside their differences, and...and embrance one another! Yeah, that's the ticket! And they'll welcome all secularists left in Iraq with open arms! Yeah, and see, then it will be all sweetness & light, b/c Saddam will be dead! That's the ticket!

[goclark]

7. Exactly, Saddam ~ friend of Rummy

is so far removed from the problem.

Did you hear his remarks about the "INVADERS?"

Please don't let them hurt our troops just because the Bush Crooks want to Hang Him!

[Bear down under]

6. "The Iraqis have traded a dictator for chaos"

He sounds as though they made the choice for themselves. The reality is that the Iraqis have been forced by the United States to trade a dictator for chaos.

[Richard Steele]

8. Milestones: 75; TOMBSTONES: 650,000

All figures approximate, of course.

[TexasLawyer]

16. well said!

[0007]

41. Do you think somehow that this is all part of James A. Baker's plan?

To push for a Saddam's trial verdict and then pull out claiming victory?

[SOS]

44. The Bush 41/Baker crew supported Pol Pot!

After Pol Pot slaughtered 1.5 million Cambodians, the Reagan and Bush administrations never wavered in their support for him.
Lucky for Pol Pot he was on the Chinese payroll and didn't have any oil.

http://www.zmag.org/Zmag/articles/hermansept97.htm

[0007]

45. Good point!

[acmavm]

10. bush** loves executions period. Here, there, anywhere, as long

as someone is being put to death, blivet gets his jollies.

[ClintonTyree]

11. More like a millstone.......

tied around the neck of our troops there. Violence will begin flaring to new levels and our already beleaguered troops will suffer more and more attacks and casualties because of it.
Yes, georgie: you'll have your execution (you DO so love a good execution, don't you?) but our troops will pay dearly for it. Not that you care. To you they're nothing more then plastic army-men you can push around a board and melt with matches at your whim. To the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and relatives, they're real live people. Or they were. Before you unleashed hell on earth just to settle an old score.
Yes, Saddam's execution will turn out to be a millstone around the neck of our troops. Thanks, georgie. :mad:

[sutz12]

13. My thoughts exactly...

We'll make him a nice little Iraqi martyr. Those religious types just love their martyrs, now don't they?

[IndianaGreen]

12. It is only a milestone in Bush's sick mind!

One thing about the war criminal Bush, he does get an erection everytime he sends someone to the gallows, as he did with Karla Faye Tucker.

I can't hardly wait for Bush's turn to go to the gallows, the biggest mass murderer of the 21st century!

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

15. I hate to be cynical

It's true Saddam is an evil man who deserves to be hanged but so what?

Is it worth the 3000 dead American troops and tens of thousands more maimed? Is it worth the 50,000 to 600,000 (depending on who you believe) Iraqis that have died since we invaded? At best the number of dead Iraqis is a wash.

Is it worth an Iraq now in civil war?

Al Qaida is now stronger not weaker because of our invasion. Two reasons being how it's distacted our armed forces who should be fighting in Afghanistan plus how it's been a great recruiting tool for Al Qaida.

[progressivebydesign]

17. The jerk even tied the deaths of our troops to this verdict.

His comments were that they did not die in vain, because of this great achivement of hanging Saddam. Oh.. so THAT's what the whole fucking point of this war was.. finally Bush explains it.

[Scooter24]

18. Oh give me a break...

this sentence was handed down the moment they captured him.

I guess he's trying to milk it for what its worth. Grasping at straws...

[Strelnikov_]

19. Did We Turn A Corner And See Light At The End Of The Tunnel

in his Charge To Keep against the Evildoers and their Dark Vision?

[PurityOfEssence]

20. Yep, I killed another. Feels good, too.

("He tried to kill my dad.")

Don't never cross no Bush.

[bikebloke]

21. Mission Accomplished #4847

And after the hanging, will anything change? Nope.

[Heidi]

22. Kick.

:kick:

[DeepModem Mom]

23. NYT: Bush Trumpets Hussein Verdict to Rally Support

Bush Trumpets Hussein Verdict to Rally Support
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 6, 2006

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — President Bush on Sunday seized on the conviction of Saddam Hussein as a milestone in Iraq, seeking to rally Republican voters with the issue of national security as some polls suggested that his party might be making gains in the final hours of the campaign.

The White House said the timing of the announcement, two days before Election Day, had nothing to do with American politics and had been dictated by the Iraqi court. But Mr. Bush moved quickly to put it to use in what has been his central strategic imperative over the past week, trying to rouse Republican voters to turn out.

“Today we witnessed a landmark event in the history of Iraq: Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced to death by the Iraqi High Tribunal,” Mr. Bush said to roars of approval in a hockey auditorium packed with supporters in Grand Island, Neb. “Saddam Hussein’s trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people’s efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law.”...

***

Across the country, Democrats also hailed the verdict in Baghdad but argued that it would make no difference in delivering stability to Iraq and would have little bearing on Tuesday’s vote.

“I think it’s a great verdict — I mean, Saddam Hussein is a war criminal and he’s getting what he deserves,” Howard Dean, the Democratic national chairman, said on “This Week” on ABC. “But I don’t think it has any impact on the safety of America.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/us/politics/06vote.html?hp&ex=1162789200&en=c3f87bb9a7234d62&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Ignacio Upton]

24. Gee, why am I not surprised by the timing of the verdict?

n/t.

[C_U_L8R]

25. And no one gives a cr*p.

so what.. Saddam got sentenced by our kangaroo court...
how predicatable.

Moreover, Iraq is more of a mess than ever
because of republican bumbling and corruption.

Poor KKKArl... all that strategery and they're STILL wrong.

[TexasLawyer]

26. Yay!!!!

Saddam will be executed! And it only cost us $1 trillion and close to 3,000 soldiers!

Isn't it grand?

:sarcasm::cry::sarcasm:

[Straight Shooter]

28. Yay! I'm all excited about it, too.

People will be crying the rest of their lives, and we'll be paying for this war the rest of our lives, but finally a tyrant that nobody gave a fiddley-fuck about before bush banged the war drum is now going to be executed. And he'll be hanged! What a show, it's incredible, it's awesome, it's soooo worth the blood and treasure.

:sarcasm:

Say, do you think they'll give bush the noose to keep in the Oval Office, perhaps alongside Saddam's pistol?

[Fovea]

30. As I understand it

the noose will be presented to the Skull and Bones society
to be used along with Geronomo's skull and Dubya's branding iron
in future initiations.

[daleo]

27. Was it worth 3000 dead Americans and 300,000 dead Iraqis, Bush?

Go tell it to those families.

[Fovea]

29. A bit of red meat to the base

specifically, the crypto sado-fascist-homoerotic elements of the
Republican party. I call them Jeff Gannon Republicans.

And I guess Karl thinks they are a significant voting block.
Or perhaps they just don't care, and are saluting their glory days
before they break open the most expensive brandy and cyanide capsules.

[gratuitous]

31. And two days ago, the White House pooh-poohed the timing

As if there wouldn't be any political hay to be made out of the verdict any way it went. Gee, what a surprise that Bush lied. Again.

But if you want to see the true test of Iraq's nascent judicial system, it will be if there is an appaeal allowed, and if the appeal actually follows rules of appellate procedure and the verdict is subject to judicial scrutiny. Any trial where so many lawyers were killed, and judges replaced, and courtroom outbursts allowed or stifled will have a helluva time on appeal. And that doesn't even touch the question of whether the Iraqi court, established only after Saddam's removal from power, is competent to provide jurisdiction over his crimes against humanity. Shouldn't Saddam have been tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague?

Or does Iraq just go from the courtroom to the gallows without any of that messy judicial process?

[HuffleClaw]

32. "had nothing to do with American politics"

i don't think anyone, not even the most rabid of freepers, believes that in the least.

[Phredicles]

34. Yet insurgent activity and NKorean nuclear tests have EVERYTHING

to do with American politics.

Funny how that works out, huh?:eyes:

[Up2Late]

33. KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! Jesus, KILL! KILL! KILL!

He's just LOVES Killin', :bounce: such a great "Christian.":eyes:

[Lindacooks]

35. So, tell me, chimpy, that mean we CAN ALL GO HOME NOW???

No?

Then who gives a shit about the verdict?

[Frank Cannon]

36. Great, he's convicted. Now WTF are we still doing over there?

I know if I'm thinking that, at least 67% of America is thinking that too.

[seafan]

37. Just like Riverbend predicted: Bush will use the 'Execute the Dictator' card.

Riverbend just wrote yesterday:

So we all knew the outcome upfront (Maliki was on television 24 hours before the verdict telling people not to ‘rejoice too much’). I think what surprises me right now is the utter stupidity of the current Iraqi government. The timing is ridiculous- immediately before the congressional elections? How very convenient for Bush. Iraq, today, is at its very worst since the invasion and the beginning occupation. April 2003 is looking like a honeymoon month today. Is it really the time to execute Saddam?

I’m more than a little worried. This is Bush’s final card. The elections came and went and a group of extremists and thieves were put into power (no, no- I meant in Baghdad, not Washington). The constitution which seems to have drowned in the river of Iraqi blood since its elections has been forgotten. It is only dug up when one of the Puppets wants to break apart the country. Reconstruction is an aspiration from another lifetime: I swear we no longer want buildings and bridges, security and an undivided Iraq are more than enough. Things must be deteriorating beyond imagination if Bush needs to use the ‘Execute the Dictator’ card.

snip

It’s not about the man- presidents come and go, governments come and go. It’s the frustration of feeling like the whole country and every single Iraqi inside and outside of Iraq is at the mercy of American politics. It is the rage of feeling like a mere chess piece to be moved back and forth at will. It is the aggravation of having a government so blind and uncaring about their peoples needs that they don’t even feel like it’s necessary to go through the motions or put up an act. And it's the deaths. The thousands of dead and dying, with Bush sitting there smirking and lying about progress and winning in a country where every single Iraqi outside of the Green Zone is losing.

Once again… The timing of all of this is impeccable- two days before congressional elections. And if you don’t see it, then I’m sorry, you’re stupid. Let’s see how many times Bush milks this as a ‘success’ in his coming speeches.

A final note. I just read somewhere that some of the families of dead American soldiers are visiting the Iraqi north to see ‘what their sons and daughters died for’. If that’s the goal of the visit, then, “Ladies and gentlemen- to your right is the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, to your left is the Dawry refinery… Each of you get this, a gift bag containing a 3 by 3 color poster of Al Sayid Muqtada Al Sadr (Long May He Live And Prosper), an Ayatollah Sistani t-shirt and a map of Iran, to scale, redrawn with the Islamic Republic of South Iraq. Also… Hey you! You- the female in the back- is that a lock of hair I see? Cover it up or stay home.”

And that is what they died for.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/06/us/politics/06vote.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1162798647-apkyM3XG32sD2p9pFjTm0A">Bush Trumpets Iraq Verdict to Rally Support

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: November 6, 2006


Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Associated Press

President Bush greeted supporters at a rally in Grand Island, Neb., on Sunday.

[adamuu]

38. so, what, he gets to make up the milestones

after they happen?
how about giving us a list?

[krispos42]

39. $500,000,000,000+, 665,000+ Iraqi & 2,834+ US dead for a 25¢ prize

Whooptie shit, be still my dancing shorts.

We could have just offered $100,000,000,000 to the first fucker to shoot Saddam and come out in the black.

[superconnected]

42. The blood on his hand before he got elected was all death penalty

of course the mass murderer is overjoyed that he's still scoring in that area.

[MiniMe]

46. Wow, a milestone in a comma. Make up you mind chimpy