Mussolini is in the middle (4th from the left)
Posted on 03/08/2006 12:56:08 AM PST by jmc1969
WASHINGTON — Most people in the United States want Saddam Hussein to hang if he's convicted at his trial, a view not shared by some longtime American allies.
AP-Ipsos polling in eight other countries, where the death penalty mostly has been abolished, found that people there prefer that the former Iraqi leader spend the rest of his life in prison. The countries are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, South Korea and Spain.
Similar, but less dramatic, disparities were found when U.S. attitudes were compared with the eight countries on whether Saddam is getting a fair trial and whether Iraqis are better off since he was driven from office in a U.S.-led invasion nearly three years ago.
Saddam, who was captured nine months after the invasion, and seven co-defendants are being tried on charges of carrying out torture, illegal arrests and executions. They face death by hanging if convicted.
Almost six in 10 in the U.S., 57 percent, said Saddam should be executed if he's convicted in the trial now in its fifth month in Baghdad.
"If he truly destroyed as many lives as they say he did, then he doesn't deserve to live," said Craig Larson, a military retiree who lives in Chesapeake, Va.
The death penalty has been abolished in seven of the nine countries polled. South Korea has talked about abolishing it. In the United States, where 1,012 have been executed over the past 28 years and at least 3,300 more are on death row, public support remains strong for state-sanctioned executions.
A study by Amnesty International found that more than nine of the 10 executions worldwide in 2004 were carried out in the United States, China, Iran and Vietnam.
Public support for sending Saddam to prison for life was strongest in Spain and Italy, where seven in 10 favored a life sentence over death. A similar sentiment was expressed in Germany, where residents are still sensitive to the violence of the Nazis and Adolph Hitler during World War II.
"I hope that (Saddam) will be not sentenced to death," said Giovanna Cippitello, sitting on a wall near the Pantheon in Rome.
In the United States, the survey found more than one-third favoring life in prison for Saddam if he is convicted.
"I am not one for putting people to death," said Molly Gearin of Bullhead City, Ariz. "I'm not God."
The poll found 73 percent of those surveyed in the United States saying Saddam is getting a fair trial.
Many in the other countries surveyed aren't so sure. A third or less of the people in Mexico, Spain and South Korea say Saddam is getting a fair trial. Less than half in France say he is getting a fair shake.
"The trial is not fair," said Evelyne Jacotot, 56, a seller of rare stamps in Paris.
The polling also found that two-thirds of the people in the U.S. were convinced that Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam a higher percentage than in the other countries polled.
People in Mexico, South Korea and Spain were far more inclined to say Iraqis are doing worse. In Germany and France two countries that strongly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq _ people were about evenly divided on that question.
Residents of Britain, Italy and Canada while not as optimistic as people in the United States _ were more likely to say Iraqis are better off now than they were under Saddam than to say they are "worse off." Britain and Italy have been among the strongest allies of U.S. Iraq policy.
He is being tried in an Islamic court. The penalties are carried out in public.
Once the head of that snake is gone, no other can take it's place, and then maybe, just maybe the Iraqis can move on in development.
Leave a rope in the cell and subject him to 7 days of Bill and Hillary Clinton speeches and he will hang himself.
Ditto... I can't wait for this trial to be over and wish those in charge would put it on a fast track. Sentencing and putting Saddam to death would bolster the Iraqis confidence that this bad guy will never have the opportunity to regain any power and they can close that brutal chapter forever.
I am more worried about the political process and making sure an Iranian tyrant doesn't become the new Saddam.
I don't care, I just want him dead.
It sets a very good precedent. Torture and kill your own people and invade neighboring countries at your peril.
First we see Saddam hanged, then we do the House of Assad. Then we get those bastards in Iran.
L
or not convicted. Either way.
You'll get no argument from me. I was just commenting on the topic of this thread.
Wood chipper time. Would love the howls from the liberals too.
ping
Country's going soft. Give him the last 15 minutes of BRAVEHEART.
I don't want him hanged. I want him shredded like many of his victims.
Mussolini is in the middle (4th from the left)
"Americans want Saddam to hang if convicted."
Not me. I want his limbs tied to four bulldozers, that will drive off toward the north, east, south and west as slowly as is possible until he is stretched to the breaking point and then turned of for the day while everyone goes home for the night. Then fire up the dozers the next day and continue the slow journey in all directions until Saddam has been subdivided.
That's slightly inaccurate. Most of us want that snake to hang even if NOT convicted. Oh, and we want it to be videotaped and broadcast around the world.
Tie him to the front of a car and see how fast he can run.
It is so funny that the countries that do not want to see Saddam killed are the same ones who chose not to send troops.
In that case STFU.
Too bad the murderers don't see things the same way.
Would have sent a more powerful message to his followers to have stood him up against a wall at capture and executed him by firing squad. They would have respected that treatment.
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