Saddam Hussaein Sentanced to Death by Hanging

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6117910.stm

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:08 (nineteen years ago)

Great, so we can leave Iraq now?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:14 (nineteen years ago)

yep, job done, nothing more to do, GHWB avenged, nothing to see here.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:16 (nineteen years ago)

Leaving? Then the Dixie Chicks would have won!

― StanM (StanM), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:18 (nineteen years ago)

Hooray! I'm a-gonna vote Republican to show my pride!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:19 (nineteen years ago)

Are they going to 'catch' osama tomorrow morning?

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:22 (nineteen years ago)

"They said you was hung!"

"And they was RIGHT!"

― kingfish prætor (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:28 (nineteen years ago)

so does this mean that the GOP wins all of these elections now?

xpost w/ ned.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)

soon to become reality?!?

http://www.wrestling1.com/ssheaven/s196.jpg

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)

i can't find the newsbit about it, but some of the soldiers guarding him would get kicks out of showing him the South Park movie

― kingfish prætor (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:40 (nineteen years ago)

Right. Who's next, Chirac, Chavez, Kim Jong-il, Ahmadinejad? (peace is impossible, that would be a disaster for the military industrial complex)

― StanM (StanM), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:41 (nineteen years ago)

http://images.tlavideo.com/images/catalog_gaybase/108092.jpg

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 5 November 2006 09:48 (nineteen years ago)

I'm sure this verdict will act as a deterent to lots of other dictators around the world.

― Hello Sunshine (Hello Sunshine), Sunday, 5 November 2006 11:15 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, that'll show 'em.

― You've Had Your Chances (noodle vague), Sunday, 5 November 2006 11:39 (nineteen years ago)

Fuck a sarcasm. Despite stupid, illegal, horribly planned invasion, and not-quite-completely-above-board trial, a man whom we know for a fact was an evil, tyrannical dictator has been brought to justice. As opposed as i am to the war (and this should have no bearing whatsoever on judging a war that was carried out for completely different reasons) It needed to be done.

― g00blar (gooblar), Sunday, 5 November 2006 12:39 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know that it's necessary to kill him. Much less hang him.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 5 November 2006 13:13 (nineteen years ago)

also i heard on the news that if the trial is considered regular, he hangs within 30 days. it all seems a bit execution styles, particularly given the 'not-quite-completely-above-board-trial'. no matter how evil and tyrannical he may have been i don't think i can condone this, quite apart from the inevitable violence and unrest it will stimulate.

― gem (trisk), Sunday, 5 November 2006 13:17 (nineteen years ago)

executions are never synonymous with justice

― and what (ooo), Sunday, 5 November 2006 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

I'm against the death penalty but I think I'm cool with this. Not that it'll change much.

― wordy rappaport (EstieButtez1), Sunday, 5 November 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

except republicans keeping house seats

― and what (ooo), Sunday, 5 November 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

That'll be "not against the death penalty" you mean.

xpost

― ONIMO's losing the plot (GerryNemo), Sunday, 5 November 2006 15:28 (nineteen years ago)

cor, funny the verdict coming before the election like that, isn't it

― stet (stet), Sunday, 5 November 2006 15:48 (nineteen years ago)

" executions are never synonymous with justice"
Hippie.

― The GZeus (The GZeus), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

Christ, either you're for the death penalty or you're against it. I'm opposed to the execution of anyone, no matter what the severity of their crimes. There's just something deeply unsettling about a state using its powers to lethal ends.

― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:21 (nineteen years ago)

Hippies and other extremists are the only ones who ever use ABSOLUTES.

I'd like to see your definition of justice when your daughter gets raped, burned, and decapitated.

An extreme example? Yeah. That's the point. emotions change viewpoints, and everyone's is different.
Relaity is in the eye of the beholder, and justice is personal.

Don't speak of abstracts like they're absolutes.

― The GZeus (The GZeus), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

Oh, yeah, fools use absolutes, too.

― The GZeus (The GZeus), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

"I'd like to see your definition of justice when your daughter gets raped, burned, and decapitated."

Hahaha oh man priceless.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:52 (nineteen years ago)

are the only ones who ever use ABSOLUTES.

So which are you?

― ONIMO's losing the plot (GerryNemo), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:54 (nineteen years ago)

Fool? Hippy? Extremist?

― ONIMO's losing the plot (GerryNemo), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

I wish we could have polls on ILX. I vote fool!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

will it be broadcasted on the web?

will they copy iran and hire a crane?

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)

I'd like to see your definition of justice when your daughter gets raped,

Well, in a hypothetical scenario like that I wouldn't really *have* a sense of justice, as most likely I'd be too filled with hate and grief to think in any sort of rational manner. Which is why we have laws to sort these matters out in ways other than solely emotional.

Also, in what order?

xxxposts

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:02 (nineteen years ago)

NO! PAY PER VIEW! THE EXECUTION OF THE CENTURY! THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL!

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:03 (nineteen years ago)

I would think you would decapite before burning her, but I'm no expert.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:05 (nineteen years ago)

Exactly, having an emotional attachment to the victim disqualifies one from passing a wise, rational judgment.

xxpost

― chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (chap), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:08 (nineteen years ago)

iraqi government to implement SYSTEMS THINKING. population sated with DARKWAVE / IDM latest news dlivered by rate your music based interface. pazz and jop entrants to form juries for trials of captured insurgents. MALL PUNK EMO INSURGENTS routed by foward moving attack formation headed by MATTY TAYLOR. execution streamed online hosted by 1988 era melody maker staffer David Stubbs. what would MR AGREEABLE say avout Saddam's crimes?

― acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:12 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.gonemovies.com/www/WanadooFilms/Thriller/Jaws3_sm.jpg

"We're gonna need a bigger server"

― dommy p is alright WHICH IS A LOT MORE THAN I CAN SAY ABOUT A LOT OF PEOPLE (Dom, Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:13 (nineteen years ago)

will they copy iran and hire a crane?

!?!?!?!?!

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:16 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.the-broom-cupboard.co.uk/handout8.jpg

it's gonna be held in baghdad's branch of walkabout. with vodka and redbull for £2 till 11.

― acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:19 (nineteen years ago)

i'm not in favor of the death penalty.

i am in favor of iraq having some semblance of a functioning legal system in accordance with its own culture. plus, he was tried for the things he did in the 80s, not for being an "enemy combatatant" or some shit, not even for kuwait.

― geoff (gcannon), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:23 (nineteen years ago)

(my my we're all up early on a sunday)

― geoff (gcannon), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:24 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.bournemouth.gov.uk/Library/images/home/england.jpg

― acrobat (elwisty), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:26 (nineteen years ago)

~~all~~

― geoff (gcannon), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:28 (nineteen years ago)

hee hee to this photo up on drudge:

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20061104/capt.8c59806633fa418f9341acd1445feddd.saddam_trial_fallout_ny461.jpg?x=380&y=326&sig=vlxm08m5OMNs_CIBeo8lUQ--

― kingfish prætor (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 5 November 2006 18:02 (nineteen years ago)

Justin Timberlake Revealed As Werewolf

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 5 November 2006 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

"I'd like to see your definition of justice when your daughter gets raped, burned, and decapitated."

this is why the jury for capital crimes is comprised of the victims family, with the victims mother serving as judge

― and what (ooo), Sunday, 5 November 2006 18:24 (nineteen years ago)

Barlow: Mayor Quimby, you're well-known, sir, for your lenient stance on crime. But suppose for a second that YOUR house was ransacked by thugs, YOUR family tied up in the basement with socks in their mouths, you try to open the door but there's too much BLOOD on the KNOB...
Quimby: What is your question?
Barlow: My question is about the budget, sir.

― and what (ooo), Sunday, 5 November 2006 18:25 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know, executing deposed rulers sounds so...mediaeval I guess. Not that he behaved like a very 21st century ruler, but still.

― StanM (StanM), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:14 (nineteen years ago)

"I'd like to see your definition of justice when your daughter gets raped, burned, and decapitated."

this is why the jury for capital crimes is comprised of the victims family, with the victims mother serving as judge

-- and what (an...), November 5th, 2006.

Exactly. And that's why when someone steals your car radio the punishment is to publicly beat the shit out of him, because I'll bet you'd like to beat the shit out of that guy!

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

id figured this would jsut rumble on till he died in custody, milosevic style.

lots of talk about good timing. but, will this even be enough? the images of him on television now, looking increasingly old and weak, iconic power eroded. as a payoff is it convincing?

― -- (688), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:26 (nineteen years ago)

though i guess, longer term it shores up credibility, doesnt leave US open to attacks, of "all that and now he finishes his days up in a luxury 'prison', watching tv on our taxes", which made this pretty inevitable

― -- (688), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:29 (nineteen years ago)

Will all his former allies be executed?

http://michael.ellerman.id.au/misc/Rumsfeld-Saddam.jpg

― StanM (StanM), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:31 (nineteen years ago)

I'd like to see your definition of justice when your daughter gets raped,

this is pretty much the conversation between me and my mum's husband every time i'm there.

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

there is an argument that violence/retribution is a necessary and cathartic element of justice, necessary for society to 'heal', feel sated, and able to move on, tieing into the notion of a clean break, an ability to put the past to rest

but this hardly applies to iraq

― -- (688), Sunday, 5 November 2006 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

"So which are you?"
OUCH! Got me.

"...are VIRTUALLY the only people to use absolutes"
Would have been correct.
(h)oops.

― The GZeus (The GZeus), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:38 (nineteen years ago)

but this hardly applies to iraq

when would it apply?

― banrique (blueski), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:43 (nineteen years ago)

Well, a forward thinking society with a well-balanced sense of justice and established legal system is probaly what he meant.

However, I think an Iraq without any possibility of people calling for him to power is better. All that people can do then is deify him and then get shot for being infidels...

I wish I knew a way to express my distaste for Iraq without any hint of my bias against Islam, but they're somewhat intertwined.
If it's any consolation, Christianty bothers me more..

― The GZeus (The GZeus), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:47 (nineteen years ago)

I thought he meant it would only apply to a country that doesn't have its chances of a healthy society ruined by a potential civil war anyway.

― Cressida Breem (neruokruokruokne?), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:50 (nineteen years ago)

There's just something deeply unsettling about a state using its powers to lethal ends.

this is pretty much the defintion/source of power of state though is it not? if the state does not have the ability to use lethal force to enfore law/order/power then it is a very fragile state. you could say the state IS the lethal use of power.

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:56 (nineteen years ago)

No, you couldn't.

The state can exercise its power through various effective means that are non-lethal. In fact, there are plenty of secure states that don't employ capital punishment. I suppose you could make a different argument regarding war, but that's not really the issue.

― Nathan P1p (hoyanathan), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:59 (nineteen years ago)

well i mean ultimately. capital punishment is pretty much the most direct example of how a state keeps power, but not the most typical. if the state is not willing to lethally put down, for example, an uprising or revolution, well then....

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

not to say this isn't or shouldn't be disturbing--and surely and state can stop using capital punishment but it must be also willing to defend lethally it's right to do so lest some other, more lethally determined state take over.

― ryan (ryan), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

it is correct to say that the state, if it is to be regarded as legitimate, has a monopoly on the use of force

although... that hardly applies to iraq

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:14 (nineteen years ago)

In large part why Iraq cannot be regarded as a legitimate state.

― milo z (mlp), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:15 (nineteen years ago)

NOVEMBER SURPRISES - TAKING SIDES:

Saddam Sentenced to Hang VS. The Well-Hung Mike Jones

(sorry)

― researching ur life (grady), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:24 (nineteen years ago)

I'm anti-death penalty, but if they must kill him, why hanging? Repay the barbaric ruler with a barbaric death? Seems a bit odd to me.

― I'm down for runnin' up on them crackers in the city hall... (papa november), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:36 (nineteen years ago)

Saddam Hussaein

Et tu Brute!?

― Gatinha (rwillmsen), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:57 (nineteen years ago)

This came from an AP article?

With justice for Saddam's crimes done, the U.S.-backed Shiite prime minister called for reconciliation and delivered the most eloquent speech of his five months in office.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Sunday, 5 November 2006 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

it is correct to say that the state, if it is to be regarded as legitimate, has a monopoly on the use of force
although... that hardly applies to iraq

Paging Hannah Arendt...

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 5 November 2006 22:48 (nineteen years ago)

Bah. I'm running out of bond villain style dictators to idolize now.

― Darramouss (Darramouss ftw), Sunday, 5 November 2006 23:04 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.repubblica.it/2006/05/sezioni/persone/fidel-castro-forbes-/fidel-castro-forbes-/ap_8053352_43310.jpg

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 5 November 2006 23:08 (nineteen years ago)

Alive ones I mean. (Yeah right)

― Darramouss (Darramouss ftw), Sunday, 5 November 2006 23:15 (nineteen years ago)

bond villain style dictators to idolize now

check the guy in uzbeck/tajikistan. the one where they actually boil people alive in oil.

― kingfish prætor (kingfish 2.0), Sunday, 5 November 2006 23:29 (nineteen years ago)

I'm opposed to the death penalty, and to read, see, and hear Bush gloat in all of his smug glory is sickening. I'm no fan of Saddam. He is a very bad man, but he was also a bad man while he was on the US payroll. What irks me about the invasion, "the trial", all of it, is that he didn't really pose a threat to anyone outside Iraq before the Yanks moved in. Iraq was a fucked up, violent and repressive nation, but it was still a sovereign state, and it was invaded for bullshit reasons. He isn't worthy of any sympathy, but if he were to complain: "what about all the other dictators?", he would have a point. What was he doing that Kim Jong Il, Robert Mugabe, and countless others aren't still? Hell, the DPRK actually has WMD, and Kim's not hanging. It's not going to solve anything, it won't help the Republicans in the upcoming elections, and it threatens to make the situation in Iraq, which is already unimaginably bad, even worse.

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Monday, 6 November 2006 07:52 (nineteen years ago)

i think you mean turkmenistan, xp.

― Jena (JenaP), Monday, 6 November 2006 07:54 (nineteen years ago)

I'm opposed to the execution of anyone, no matter what the severity of their crimes. There's just something deeply unsettling about a state using its powers to lethal ends.
-- chap who would dare to welcome our new stingray masters (joe.goode...), November 5th, 2006.

um ok. you know we *invaded* iraq right?

― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 6 November 2006 10:39 (nineteen years ago)

like i'm soooo unsettled by killing this one fucking guy but y'know the fact we started a civil war that kills 50< people a day -- heck that's bidnizz.

― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 6 November 2006 10:40 (nineteen years ago)

I wish we could have polls on ILX. I vote fool!

-- Alex in SF (clobberthesauru...), November 5th, 2006.

LOL we tried this

― If you fuck with Jimmy Mod, you call down the thunder (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Monday, 6 November 2006 10:44 (nineteen years ago)

Seeing as Margaret Beckett is so pleased that Saddam is to be hanged, maybe she can get to pull the lever? Or maybe just kick away the chair?

― Dadaismus (Takin' Funk to Heaven in '77) (Dada), Monday, 6 November 2006 10:49 (nineteen years ago)

hanging is kind of random.

mebbe he could be made to do community service as a baghdad street cop or something.

― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 6 November 2006 10:50 (nineteen years ago)

... he's the wrong religion to be a cop in modern day Iraq

― Dadaismus (Takin' Funk to Heaven in '77) (Dada), Monday, 6 November 2006 10:55 (nineteen years ago)

I'd like to see your definition of justice when your daughter gets raped,
Well, in a hypothetical scenario like that I wouldn't really *have* a sense of justice, as most likely I'd be too filled with hate and grief to think in any sort of rational manner. Which is why we have laws to sort these matters out in ways other than solely emotional.
this is pretty much the conversation between me and my mum's husband every time i'm there.
-- i am not a nugget (stevieisdrinkingdosequi...) (webmail), Yesterday 7:45 PM. (later) (link)

Well, next time, propose the abolition of any punishment for murder or rape.

Then, if rape or murder was comitted, you could just go and kill that person yourself!

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 November 2006 11:27 (nineteen years ago)

Or rape them, presumably.

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Monday, 6 November 2006 12:20 (nineteen years ago)

is there any risk of Saddam's martyrdom here?

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Monday, 6 November 2006 12:39 (nineteen years ago)

xpost entirely up to you.

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 6 November 2006 12:40 (nineteen years ago)

the fragile equilibrium of peacetime iraq is in the balance!

― benrique (Enrique), Monday, 6 November 2006 12:41 (nineteen years ago)

http://www.kittenrecords.co.uk/slypics/youwantmeto.jpg

― teh_kit returns! (g-kit), Monday, 6 November 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

So who's next then Iran? Nice it'll be like the 80's and The yanks can get Saddam to help them agai- oh wait.

― Darramouss (Darramouss ftw), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

i think you mean turkmenistan, xp.

I think he does mean Uzbekistan.

― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:43 (nineteen years ago)

Vatican blasts sentence as uncivilized:

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L05244002.htm

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:47 (nineteen years ago)

You'd think if he was to be executed they would've chosen one of the more oft-used "civilized" methods actually currently practised in America - lethal injection or electric chair or something. Just on Western "principal". I'm not necessarily opposed to the death penalty, but I can't say I like the notion of doing it in such a barbaric manner, regardless of what he has been convicted of. It seems to throw to the wind the US war cabinet's notions of moral superiority. I mean, shit, are we going to stick his head on a pike in downtown Baghdad to REALLY send the message home? Good god.

x-post to Vatican

― polar bear flashback episode (nickalicious), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

i could see his appeals or more trials or whatever dragging on by virtue of his allies in the iraqi government and then when we start to pullout next year he kinda gets lost in the shuffle and he's busted outa prision in an inside job and is eventually given safe haven in the new sunnistan.

or at least that would be a fascinating plot twist.

― jhoshea megafauna (scoopsnoodle), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)

I’ll believe it when i see it on ebaums!

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Monday, 6 November 2006 15:14 (nineteen years ago)

Would it be under hilarious videos? Either way it'd be nicked off youtube like every other video on there.

― Darramouss (Darramouss ftw), Monday, 6 November 2006 15:33 (nineteen years ago)

seventeen years pass...

The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the Middle East, 1979-2003
by Steve Coll.
Allen Lane, 556 pp., £30, February, 978 0 241 68665 2
Long before Bush and Blair invaded Iraq, many Iraqis suspected that foreign intelligence services were manipulating their country’s domestic affairs. Since the 1920s – when Gertrude Bell manoeuvred behind the scenes in the early days of the Iraqi state under the British mandate – otherwise inexplicable events were often attributed to the workings of ‘Abu Naji’, a quasi-mythical figure used as shorthand to refer to the meddling British, and later the Americans. As Steve Coll makes clear in The Achilles Trap, Saddam Hussein was even more suspicious than most. Reviewing Saddam’s diligently recorded private discussions with intimates, Coll notes that he ‘regularly steered the conversation around to the subject of conspiracies’, crediting both the British intelligence services and the CIA with a clear understanding of Iraq’s internal affairs. In Coll’s view, the credit was undeserved. The Americans continually misread Saddam, notably failing to anticipate his invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 or to notice his secret disposal of his entire stock of weapons of mass destruction the following year – failures that ultimately contributed to the disaster of the invasion and occupation.

Coll’s book is full of arresting details about Saddam’s years as dictator of Iraq. From 1979, when he assumed the presidency, his authority rested primarily on the brutal repression of minorities such as the Kurds, combined with the generous disbursement of the country’s oil wealth to the rest of his subjects (before the 1991 Gulf War, the major problem facing Iraqi paediatricians was childhood obesity). Coll’s trawling of the documentary archive reveals a great deal about Saddam’s dealings with his lethally fractious family. His eldest son, Uday, was a particular thorn in his side: in 1988 Uday beat his father’s valet to death; seven years later he shot and severely wounded his uncle Watban.

Saddam was, according to his cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, ‘so cruel you could not imagine’. Given that al-Majid – aka Chemical Ali – was himself a mass murderer, this was saying something. Yet Coll also shows that Saddam was more than just a tyrannical thug. He could be self-deprecatingly humorous, and was deeply read in Arab and foreign literature (Hemingway was a favourite). Once, catching a TV presenter in a grammatical error, he phoned the minister of culture to complain, decreeing a six-month suspension for the offender. His own literary efforts occupied an inordinate amount of his time – The Complete Writings of Saddam Hussein (2001) filled eighteen volumes. As his regime came under growing pressure in the 1990s, he increasingly immersed himself in fiction, writing four allegorical novels of enormous length, typically about a humble ruler beset by hostile powers. Even as US tanks approached Baghdad in April 2003, he was overseeing the publication, with a forty thousand copy print run, of his last novel, Get Out, Damned One!, whose plot hinged on fearsome resistance to foreign occupation. His first novel, Zabiba and the King, gave a telling clue to his approach to government: at one point, the heroine urges an Iraqi leader ‘to arrest all’ who had known about an assassination plot, ‘as well as all those who may have taken part’. A semi-autobiographical work, Men and the City, evoked the grim world of his rural upbringing in Tikrit, calling it ‘worse than the life of dogs’.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n13/andrew-cockburn/why-didn-t-you-tell-me

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 July 2024 10:53 (one year ago)

NGL, “Get Out, Damned One!” is one hell of a Mountain Goats album title.

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Thursday, 18 July 2024 13:56 (one year ago)

It's great to discover a writer who can take the place of Alice Munro in the canon

― Halfway there but for you, Thursday, 18 July 2024 14:18 (one year ago)

Cases where you can separate the artist from his art?

― Jersey Devil Vance (President Keyes), Thursday, 18 July 2024 14:29 (one year ago)

Cases where you can separate the artist's head from his body

― muswell hillbilly elegy (Matt #2), Thursday, 18 July 2024 14:30 (one year ago)

lol in my edgelord youth I bought a Saddam Hussein novel, have not read

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 18 July 2024 14:35 (one year ago)

that's my worst nightmare. living under a murderous dictator who is also a committed grammar-policer

― vodkaitamin effrtvescent (calzino), Thursday, 18 July 2024 14:48 (one year ago)

lol in my edgelord youth I bought a Saddam Hussein novel, have not read

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, July 18, 2024

You got homework, son.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 18 July 2024 15:23 (one year ago)

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