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.
They should allow some of the victims' survivors to stone him to death. That would serve as some justice.
But Saddam's different. Saddam doesn't welcome death, he runs and hides from it. It scares him. To him, death will not be a reward, it will be punishment. So hang him.
South Korea still has the death penalty.
This American doesn't care how Saddam dies as long as it's broadcast live around the world and the families of the people he slaughtered get a front row seat to watch it happen.
Should have just dropped a grenade in his spider hole when we had the chance.
hangin's too good fer 'im...
BURNIN's too good fer 'im...
Put him in a Cell that is 5 foot X 5 foot with Helen Thomas for the rest of their lives. He will be begging for poison in a few days. LOL
Do you think it would really take 7 days? :-)
Gee, that's insightful. Thank you for being such an enlightening and edifying voice, Evelyne. Since you're a seller of rare stamps in Paris I feel I know you and can trust whatever passes for reasoning in that mostly empty space between your ears.
I tend to think Saddam escape justice by dying of old age. Possibly before the first trail is complete.
¡Ayyyyyy, piñata!
....silly me....I never knew Mexico was an ally of ours...
Depends on how deaf at his age he is.
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