Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Wolfala on December 14, 2003, 04:49:36 AM

Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Wolfala on December 14, 2003, 04:49:36 AM
.WE GOT SADDAM!!!!


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been detained in Iraq, Iran's official news agency reported Sunday.

``Saddam Hussein was arrested in his hometown of Tikrit,'' IRNA quoted top Iraqi leader, Jalal Talabani as saying. It gave no further details.

In Iraq, a separate rumor that Saddam was captured or killed near Tikrit sent hundreds of exultant people into the streets of this northern Iraqi city Sunday. They fired in the air in celebration and congratulated each other.

In Baghdad, a spokeswoman for the U.S.-led occupation notified reporters that a ``very important'' announcement will be made at a news conference scheduled for 7 a.m. EST, but did not say who would be the speaker. The spokeswoman requested anonymity.

In Tikrit, rumors that the former dictator was in custody were making the rounds, but reporters attached to the 4th Infantry Division, the U.S. unit in charge of security in the area, said there was no unusual activity there overnight or early Sunday.

``We are celebrating like it's a wedding,'' said Mustapha Sheriff, a resident of Kirkuk. ``We are finally rid of that criminal.''

``This is the joy of a lifetime,'' said Ali Al-Bashiri, another Kirkuk resident. ``I am speaking on behalf of all the people that suffered under his rule.''

Saddam, who ruled Iraq for 23 years until his ouster in April, has been a fugitive since then with a $25 million bounty on his head.

Rumors about Saddam's capture or death periodically surface, and a hotline set up by the occupation authorities for tips on his whereabouts is flooded with callers.


:aok :(

(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/ah_204_1071398946.jpg)
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Overlag on December 14, 2003, 05:18:58 AM
im going to throw a party!!!!!!!! :D :lol
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: thrila on December 14, 2003, 06:11:27 AM
There are gonna be lots of complications when he goes to trial.  Maybe it would have been better if he had been killed "resisting arrest".
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: oboe on December 14, 2003, 06:48:31 AM
No, I think the last thing you'd want to do is make a martyr out of this guy.    Better that he was captured as he was, hiding in a self-dug hole in a cellar.     Won't exactly impress any Saddam faithfuls with his bravery.

I would guess we would have the right to try him as a war criminal, but maybe will defer to the new Iraqi leadership as a way of proving we are really serious about turning things back over to them...
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: EsmeNhaMaire on December 14, 2003, 06:57:23 AM
Just heard it on BBC-24. Good. Despite being very much angered that we (the UK) went to war illegally when a few weeks more might have seen UN backing, and despite that the UK leadership was as foolish as the US was dishonest regarding weapons of mass destruction, I am very happy to see Saddam has been caught like a cornered rabbit. He had a pistol and two Kalashnikovs, but not a shot was fired in his arrest.

I hope that either the Iraquis or the UN tries him. It would be horribly wrong for the UK or US to do so.

Esme
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Wolfala on December 14, 2003, 07:07:28 AM
Regardless who tries him, he's culpable for tens of thousands killed during his reign - any way you cut it - he's a dead man.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Scatcat on December 14, 2003, 08:18:12 AM
Quote
Originally posted by EsmeNhaMaire
Just heard it on BBC-24. Good. Despite being very much angered that we (the UK) went to war illegally when a few weeks more might have seen UN backing, and despite that the UK leadership was as foolish as the US was dishonest regarding weapons of mass destruction, I am very happy to see Saddam has been caught like a cornered rabbit. He had a pistol and two Kalashnikovs, but not a shot was fired in his arrest.

I hope that either the Iraquis or the UN tries him. It would be horribly wrong for the UK or US to do so.

Esme


The UN would have done nothing but to continue the status quo of Saddam killing his people and the US/UK "containing" this dictator in his little corner of the world.

To heck with the UN/International courts. He have Saddam and the US should bring justice on him.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: mold on December 14, 2003, 08:49:54 AM
He's definitely a bastard, no matter who tries him.  Still, it would probably be best if the Iraqis did it themselves.  Then there's no question about what his own people think of him, and there can be no dweebs who can turn around and say "oh, but he was just convicted because the US tried him." LOL.  Plus there are a lot of dweebs out there (to put it very generously) who might even see this as a martyrdom if it's a US trial, and might therefore start driving bomb-filled busses into our soldiers in "revenge". :rolleyes:
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: frank3 on December 14, 2003, 09:25:35 AM
Quote
WE GOT SADDAM!!!!


About time :rolleyes:
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: sling322 on December 14, 2003, 10:16:37 AM
Quote
Originally posted by EsmeNhaMaire
Just heard it on BBC-24. Good. Despite being very much angered that we (the UK) went to war illegally when a few weeks more might have seen UN backing,  


Yeah...keep on believing that.  12 years of being in violation of UN sanctions didnt stop him, what makes you think a few more weeks would have made a difference?
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: NUKE on December 14, 2003, 10:23:55 AM
Quote
Originally posted by frank3
About time :rolleyes:


Yeah, I'm sure any idiot/s like yourself could have captured him in a few days.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: MajorDay on December 14, 2003, 10:31:03 AM
WTG 4th Infantry Division and Special Operations for capture Saddam Hussein and I hope all US and British can go home after got Saddam.  The bad news that Osamsa Bin Laden is still somewhere free and he'll probably planning strike somewhere.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: mora on December 14, 2003, 10:35:12 AM
This is great news. I hope and believe this will be a turning point for better.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: majic on December 14, 2003, 11:00:25 AM
Quote
Originally posted by NUKE
Yeah, I'm sure any idiot/s like yourself could have captured him in a few days.


Well hindsight is 20-20, but dammnit, we should have sent frank in, woulda had him in days.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Hortlund on December 14, 2003, 11:39:29 AM
Quote
Originally posted by EsmeNhaMaire
Despite being very much angered that we (the UK) went to war illegally when a few weeks more might have seen UN backing


ahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH AHA
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: GRUNHERZ on December 14, 2003, 11:42:51 AM
Quote
Originally posted by frank3
About time :rolleyes:


If we had only called you in to do it right...
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Octavius on December 14, 2003, 11:48:46 AM
holy ****!

w00t.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Octavius on December 14, 2003, 12:05:52 PM
If I had the authority to direct Saddam's fate, I wouldn't choose death... initially.  

Trials are definitely in order, but I think killing him is a bad choice and is actually letting him off easy.  Instead, the coalition could use him to help quell the resistance.  Perhaps he could make a few recordings to be broadcast asking the Fedayeen and other members of the resistance to stand down and go home... the party's over.  

I say keep him alive for the moment... If the Iraqis have their way, torture or any other barbaric treament will just lower themselves to Saddam's level.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: EsmeNhaMaire on December 14, 2003, 12:11:26 PM
Quote
Originally posted by sling322
Yeah...keep on believing that.  12 years of being in violation of UN sanctions didnt stop him, what makes you think a few more weeks would have made a difference?


You evidently weren't following events at the time. There was a move towards the UN backing action against the Iraqui regime building.  Why did the US want to move BEFORE the UN became involved? Why act in contravention of international law unecessarily? And before taking that kind of tone with me, please consider that the "might is right" argument is exactly what Hussein was relying on to stay in power. How is the US  (or any other country)any better if it follows the same reasoning?

Come to that, why didnt the US get involved in Yugoslavia earlier, if it is so concerned about ending vicious regimes? Or Cambodia?  Why didnt the US go after Saddam Hussein after the first Gulf War? Why did it hang the Shiite rebellion of teh time out to dry?  Why hasnt it gone after a number of other countries run by oppressive regimes? Why did some element in the US govt lie about the existence of "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq? Why is the US trying to bar compnaies from countries other than the UK and US from getting contracts to help get Iraq back on its feet?

The evidence does not point to US altruism.  A good deed has been badly done (failing to ensure adequate policing in Iraq after the fighting was criminally incompetent) for reasons other than were stated originally, so far as I can see. If you can't see that, you're blind.

And believe me, I am just as unhappy at the UK government. Blair should have tried to persuade Bush to wait a few more weeks so that the job could have been done with international backing, and done properly, instead of hastily and poorly.

I am very very glad that a murderous swine like Saddam Hussein has been removed from power and caught so he may be tried in law. That does not mean that I condone the lies and law-breaking used to bring us to that point.

Esme
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Otto on December 14, 2003, 12:17:12 PM
UN..?   What's the UN?

Oh...  You mean that debating society on the Hudson where all the Third World members sit around a table with Aluminum pots on their heads and hit them with wooden spoons?
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: EsmeNhaMaire on December 14, 2003, 12:21:56 PM
Quote
Originally posted by GRUNHERZ
If we had only called you in to do it right...


If the US had done it right, I wouldnt be complaining.
- lyng about reasons for going in.
- going in before troops were adequately prepared for it
- breaking of international law
- holding individuals in poor conditions without due legal process
- failure to ensure adequate policing after the fighting, allowing priceless historical treasures to be looted

Doesnt sound a lot better than Iraqs record going into Kuwait, does it?  And lets face it, the US has put a number of nasty regimes into power simply because they wanted to stop countries from going communist.

Try coherent argument based on facts rather than silly remarks based on ignorance.  Try reading history, and perhaps you will see why it is clear that what was done was not done well, even though the end result was positive.

Esme
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: EsmeNhaMaire on December 14, 2003, 12:34:45 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Otto
UN..?   What's the UN?

Oh...  You mean that debating society on the Hudson where all the Third World members sit around a table with Aluminum pots on their heads and hit them with wooden spoons?


The UN, like the League of Nations before it, was brought into existence to try to keep the peace between nations and to promote human rights. The USA signally failed to back the LON, which collapsed. The USA is now ignoring the UN.

One cannot help but wonder why a nation claiming to be on such high moral ground with regard to the rule of law, and to have the pursuit of liberty, happiness etc as part of its consitution has so doggedly refused to work with the rest of the world to promote such things, refused to get involved in a war against a far greater dictator until Pearl Harbour more or less forced the issue, and why it has backed despotic regimes itself several times since.

Your expressed attitude does you a disservice.  Bush-led America seems to despise all that is not American, and to cynically follow its own interests no matter the rights or wrongs of them. Which is exactly what the UK was doing when it acquired the British Empire. It's exactly what ANY dictatorial regime does when it is on the way up.  Surely an enlightened modern state can do better than that?  Or are we witnessing ths start of an America Empire being built?
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Otto on December 14, 2003, 01:09:16 PM
"Or are we witnessing the start of an America Empire being built?

   Himmm?   Well 're-colonizing the Third World would have some advantages; you could stop them from killing each other for example.  But, I don't see what  would be in it for the USA.   It would just be too costly in lives and dollars.  

       The human cost of the Iraq war to my country has been great.   Every loss is felt deeply and with sorrow.  But most of the American people understand it in the light of 9/11.   Somebody had to pay for that attack, and it had to be a Arab country, or the point would be lost.   Yes, we should have chosen Saudi Arabia but your friends in the 'UN' would have had such a "Hissy Fit" about that they might have moved their Headquarters from New York!   God forbid...
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: AKIron on December 14, 2003, 01:12:35 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Otto
 Yes, we should have chosen Saudi Arabia but your friends in the 'UN' would have had such a "Hissy Fit" about that they might have moved their Headquarters from New York!   God forbid...


To paraphrase Curly from City Slickers: War ain't over yet.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Maverick on December 14, 2003, 01:16:10 PM
Methinks you protest to much.

The UN had 12 years to act. The US gave the UN more than adequate notice that it was time to do something. The french and germans were too busy selling to the iraqi's to want to do anything and actively moved to block any UN action successfully. When it was more than painfully obvious thaat there would be no UN action the US did act. Given the collapse of the iraqi forces during the war it is also obvious that ther troops were adequately prepared to prosecute the war.

As to the international law charge, I believe there was a UN mandate to act and calling for the use of force if saddumb did not comply. He did not come through and action was taken.

As to your little WW2 diatribe, the US did take action to assist our allies before Pearl Harbor. We did so inspite of the fact that the US wasn't prepared for hostillities and it in fact violated our neutrality in another euro conflict. A conflict that likely would not have happened had not the treaty terms been so ruinous at the insistance of the euro contingent.

Finally it is in the US's intrest to take care of it's own interests and not the UN's interest. You complain about our taking action and acting like the worlds police force when we do not want to do that function. Then cite that we didn't act soon enough in other areas right in your own back yard. The euros were and are FAR closer to the situation in the slavic areas. Seems you should have been cleaning up your own back yard before we had to get involved.  Again.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: EsmeNhaMaire on December 14, 2003, 03:03:36 PM
I was pointing out the inconsistency of previously stated positions, silly.


You havent said why the US did not act during the first Gulf War. So dont try to claim that the US is morally superior on those grounds.  You have ignored the US sponsorship of many dictatorships- including Saddams,in the past.

Action was not taken under a UN resolution; it was that which was just a few weeks away from happening. The US decided to act unilaterally, in breach of international law, and to persuade a close ally to aid it using, frankly, lies.

The US had no allies prior to Pearl Harbour. Your President of the time took what action he could despite the wishes of the US people to try to ignore events in the rest of the world.  In other words, when free peoples were in dire need of help and asked for it, the US didnt, as a polity, want to know.  

Oh, so you DO read SOME history? Glad you are aware of the Versailles Treaty and why it was so ruinous to Europe. (chuckle..) OK, OK, let;s assume we've both read our history, but are disagreeing on the interpretation. Look,simply because I am against unlawful events that the US has done recently does not mean that I am generally anti-US, m'dear. I am anti bad actions by any country.  And the UK has certainly committed its fair share of malodorous actions in the past. That doesnt make the recent actions by the USA any better, though, just as it doesnt make Saddams actions any better, either.

Europe has been fought over so many times that we have learnt that we NEED to talk and to form some kind of collective agency in order to try to avoid large-scale warfare in future. The USA has not had the same kind of history.  Yet it is blundering around making the same kinds of mistakes that Britain did in the past - that many a young empire did.  Whether the USA intends it or not, it DOES look rather as if the USA is trying to get started on the raod to empire - and by fair means or foul.

Compare the British entry into Indian affairs (as in India, not native Americans) with the US involvement in the Middle east.  Trade, then military action, then colonialism, in the former case. All the while, happily throwing aside rule of law when it didnt suit British interest. (shrugs). Now, if you think it was GOOD that we should have done so, I can see why you'd support the illegal actions the US undertook.

Personally, I think that the  UN should be much more proactive against tyranny around the world. But because it is an organisation of nations, - a grat many of them - it takes time to get folks used to cooperating with each other. So many diferent cultures, viewpoints, needs and desires. The UN has steadily been feeling its way towards better things. The US, however, has been merrily giving it the two fingers whenever it feels like it.

How is THAT supposed ot be helpful?

And if the US doesnt want to be the worlds police force, why does it keep on doing so, but only in places where it has economic interests?  Why won't it work WITH the UN to try to get things working better? As is, it has all the makings of an international bully. A bully claiming good intent, but how can we be sure that will last? Look at the McCarthy era in the USA!

Blindly cheering the USA (or any other country) no matter what is a road to grief. Any good friend of the US would point out when it's blundered so that it might learn from it, and in Iraq, it has made some massive blunders.   Tony Blair shouldve been helping the US avoid those blunders, not aiding and abetting the blundering.

And that's my final words on the matter, because anyone who hasn;'t taken my point now (irrespective of whether or not they agre with my viewpoint) probably never will understand what I'm trying to get at.  And I do not want to fall out with folk over this kind of thing.  There's enough kaka in the world without inventing any more of it.



Esme
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: mrblack on December 14, 2003, 03:14:35 PM
Saddam Hussein Captured in Iraq Hideout    
2 hours, 6 minutes ago  Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo!
 

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Without firing a shot, American forces captured a bearded and haggard-looking Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) in a dirt pit across a river from one of his former palaces near his hometown of Tikrit, ending one of the most intensive manhunts in history. The arrest was a huge victory for U.S. forces battling an insurgency by the ousted dictator's followers.


AP Photo


AP Photo  
 Slideshow: Saddam Hussein Captured

  Coalition Forces Release Saddam Hussein Video
(AP Video)
 


 
Latest headlines:  
· Saddam's Fall: From Palaces to Filthy Pit
AP - 2 minutes ago  
· Many in U.S. Pleased With Saddam Capture
AP - 7 minutes ago  
· Palestinians Mark 'Black Day' of Saddam Capture
Reuters - 14 minutes ago  
Special Coverage  
 
 

   

In the capital, radio stations played celebratory music, residents fired small arms in the air in celebration and passengers on buses and trucks shouted, "They got Saddam! They got Saddam!" Eager to prove to Iraqis that Saddam was in custody, the U.S. military showed video of the ousted leader, bearded and disheveled, being examined by a military doctor.


"The former dictator of Iraq (news - web sites) will face the justice he denied to millions," President Bush (news - web sites) said in a midday televised address from the White House, eight months after American troops swept into Baghdad and toppled Saddam's regime. "In the history of Iraq, a dark and painful era is over. A hopeful day has arrived."


Hours before the capture was announced, a suspected suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car outside a police station west of Baghdad, killing at least 17 people and wounding 33 more, the U.S. military said. Also Sunday, a U.S. soldier died while trying to disarm a roadside bomb south of the capital.


Washington hopes Saddam's capture will help break the organized Iraq resistance that has killed more than 190 American soldiers since Bush declared major combat over on May 1 and has set back efforts at reconstruction.


But Maj. Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which captured Saddam, said the ousted leader did not appear to be directly organizing resistance — noting no communication devices were found in his hiding place. "I believe he was there more for moral support," Odierno said.


Saddam's capture was based on information from a member of a family "close to him," Odierno told reporters in Tikrit.


The crucial information came after prisoners from raids and intelligence tips led to increasingly precise information, as CIA (news - web sites) and military analysts gradually narrowed down their list of potential sites where Saddam was staying, a U.S. official said.


The capture took place at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at one of dozens of safehouses Saddam is thought to have: a walled compound on a farm in Adwar, a town 10 miles from Tikrit, not far from one of Saddam's former palaces, Odierno said.


"I think it's rather ironic that he was in a hole in the ground across the river from these great palaces that he built," Odierno said.


The event comes almost five months after his sons, Qusai and Odai, were killed July 22 in a four-hour gunbattle with U.S. troops in a hideout in the northern city of Mosul. There was hope at the time that the sons' deaths would dampen the Iraqi resistance to the U.S. occupation. But since then, the guerrilla campaign has mounted dramatically.


Saddam was one of the most-wanted fugitives in the world, along with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), the leader of the al-Qaida terrorist network who has not been caught despite a manhunt since November 2001, when the Taliban regime was overthrown in Afghanistan (news - web sites).


"Ladies and gentlemen, we got him," U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told a news conference. "The tyrant is a prisoner."


Some 600 troops and special forces were involved in the raid that netted Saddam — though not all were aware beforehand that the objective was "High Value Target No. 1," Odierno said.


Troops found the ousted leader, armed with a pistol, hiding in an underground crawl space at the walled compound, Odierno said. Rugs and dirt covered the Styrofoam lid covering the entrance to the hiding place, a few feet from a small, mud-brick hut where Saddam had been staying.


The hut consisted of two rooms, a bedroom with clothes scattered about and a "rudimentary kitchen," Odierno said. The commander said Saddam likely had been there only a short time, noting that new shirts, still unwrapped, were found in the bedroom.


Saddam was "very disoriented" as soldiers brought him out of the hole, Odierno said. A Pentagon (news - web sites) diagram showed the hiding place as a 6-foot-deep vertical tunnel, with a shorter tunnel branching out horizontally from one side. A pipe to the concrete surface at ground level provided air.

   



Saddam didn't fire his weapon. "There was no way he could fight back so he was just caught like a rat," Odierno said.

Two other Iraqis — described as low-level regime figures — were arrested in the raid, and soldiers found two Kalashnikov rifles, a pistol, a taxi and $750,000 in $100 bills.

A U.S. defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Saddam admitted his identity when captured.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, who saw Saddam overnight, said the deposed leader "has been cooperative and is talkative." He described Saddam as "a tired man, a man resigned to his fate."

"He was unrepentant and defiant," said Adel Abdel-Mahdi, a senior official of a Shiite Muslim political party who, along with other Iraqi leaders, visited Saddam in captivity.

"When we told him, 'If you go to the streets now, you will see the people celebrating,'" Abdel-Mahdi said. "He answered, 'Those are mobs.' When we told him about the mass graves, he replied, 'Those are thieves.'"

The official added: "He didn't seem apologetic. He seemed defiant, trying to find excuses for the crimes in the same way he did in the past."

Sanchez played a video at the news conference showing the 66-year-old Saddam in custody.

Saddam, with a thick, graying beard and bushy, disheveled hair, was seen as doctor examined him, feeling his scalp and holding his mouth open with a tongue depressor. Saddam blinked and touched his beard during the exam. Then the video showed a picture of Saddam after he was shaved, juxtaposed for comparison with an old photo of the Iraqi leader while in power.

Iraqi journalists at the press conference stood, pointed and shouted "Death to Saddam!" and "Down with Saddam!"

Though the raid occurred Saturday afternoon American time, U.S. officials went to great length to keep it quiet until medical tests and DNA testing confirmed Saddam's identity.

Saddam was being held at an undisclosed location, and U.S. authorities have not yet determined whether to hand him over to the Iraqis for trial or what his status would be. Iraqi officials want him to stand trial before a war crimes tribunal created last week.

Amnesty International said Sunday that Saddam should be given POW status and allowed visits by the international Red Cross.

Ahmad Chalabi, a member of Iraq's Governing Council, said Saddam will be put on trial.

"Saddam will stand a public trial so that the Iraqi people will know his crimes," Chalabi told Al-Iraqiya, a Pentagon-funded TV station.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) hailed the capture, saying the deposed leader "has gone from power, he won't be coming back."

"Where his rule meant terror and division and brutality, let his capture bring about unity, reconciliation and peace between all the people of Iraq," Blair said.

Celebratory gunfire erupted in the capital, and shop owners closed their doors, fearful that the shooting would make the streets unsafe.

"I'm very happy for the Iraqi people. Life is going to be safer now," said 35-year-old Yehya Hassan, a resident of Baghdad. "Now we can start a new beginning."

After sundown, three barrels of gasoline mounted on a pickup truck exploded in central Baghdad, causing a fierce blaze but no casualties, police officials said.

Earlier in the day, rumors of the capture sent people streaming into the streets of Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, firing guns in the air in celebration.

"We are celebrating like it's a wedding," said Kirkuk resident Mustapha Sheriff. "We are finally rid of that criminal."

Still, many Baghdadis were skeptical.

"I heard the news, but I'll believe it when I see it," said Mohaned al-Hasaji, 33. "They need to show us that they really have him."

Ayet Bassem, 24, walked out of a shop with her 6-year-old son.

"Things will be better for my son," she said. "Everyone says everything will be better when Saddam is caught. My son now has a future."

After invading Iraq on March 20 and setting up their headquarters in Saddam's sprawling Republican Palace compound in Baghdad, U.S. troops launched a massive manhunt for the fugitive (news - Y! TV) leader, placing a $25 million bounty on his head and sending thousands of soldiers to search for him.

Saddam proved elusive during the war, when at least two dramatic military strikes came up empty in their efforts to assassinate him. Since then, he has appeared in both video and audio tapes. U.S. officials named him No. 1, the so-called Ace of Spades, on their list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis.

Saddam's capture leaves 13 figures still at large from the list. The highest-ranking figure among them is Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a close Saddam aide who U.S. officials have said may be directly organizing resistance.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: senna on December 14, 2003, 03:56:33 PM
Hurray, they gotim.

:aok
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: AKIron on December 14, 2003, 04:45:45 PM
Quote
Originally posted by GScholz
One thing to ponder: I noticed while seeing the Iraqi people (on CNN and Norwegian TV) celebrating on the streets that while they were waving a lot of different flags and banners (even old Soviet flags), I didn't see a single US or UK flag. Only in the USA did Iraqi expatriates wave US flags.


Perhaps they didn't have any to wave? This was an event brought to them primarily by the US. Not to lessen the involvement by many other nations but there would be no celebration if the US had not pushed this through. If they are happy for their freedom from this tyrant but ungrateful to those that brought it about then they are fools.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: FUNKED1 on December 14, 2003, 05:03:01 PM
As long as they aren't burning American flags or blowing themselves up I am happy.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: sling322 on December 14, 2003, 05:06:01 PM
Quote
Originally posted by EsmeNhaMaire
BLAH BLAH BLAH

Esme


Is that all you can come up with to dispute the fact that Iraq was in violation of the original UN sanctions set after the Gulf War?  They had 12 yrs to comply and didnt.  A few more weeks would not have made a difference.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Maverick on December 14, 2003, 09:24:21 PM
Esmewhatever,

Yes I do read history. Some of it I have lived through. The only thing I am going to respond to in your rather rambling and inaccurate post is the WW2 allies.

Please note that we were allied with Great Britain long before pearl Harbor. The same goe for China. Now if you really were a student of history instead of mangling it, you would have knowledge of the terms Arsenal of Demacoracy, lend lease and the American Volunteer Force (IE Flying Tigers).

Now please go find somewhere else to spew your hatred and bigotry. You aren't worth the time to respond to as the lack of other responses to your rantings have shown.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Saintaw on December 15, 2003, 03:02:11 AM
Good thing they got'im. Next thing to catch are the WMDs... right ?
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Duedel on December 15, 2003, 03:38:50 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Maverick
Now please go find somewhere else to spew your hatred and bigotry. You aren't worth the time to respond to as the lack of other responses to your rantings have shown.


Hatred and bigotry? If u think that Esmes post contains hatred and bigotry than i understand why everything u post (regarding the war on Iraq) on this board is .... uhm ... crap. Ur problem is u'r false interpretation and understanding of words / sentenses that exceed ur intellectual horizon.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Dowding on December 15, 2003, 04:02:47 AM
Quote
Now if you really were a student of history instead of mangling it, you would have knowledge of the terms Arsenal of Demacoracy, lend lease and the American Volunteer Force (IE Flying Tigers).


War materiel was bought by the British government, in cash, in full, prior to Pearl Harbour. It practically bankrupted the British Empire and British businesses had to sell all their stakes in American firms. An American warship even went to South Africa to pick up gold bullion as payment. Things weren't particularly altruistic. The US pretty much played the part of an arms dealer who wouldn't accept credit - although that was probably neccessary to protect her neutrality.

American volunteers in Britain were less than a handful compared to the majority (3000 total, 2000 British). I guess Tom Cruise will gloss over that fact in his new film. ;)
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Holden McGroin on December 15, 2003, 04:26:15 AM
The Lend Lease Act was an arrangement for the transfer of war supplies, including food, machinery, and services, to nations whose defense was considered vital to the defense of the United States in World War II.

The Lend-Lease Act, passed passed March 11, 1941 by the U.S. Congress, gave the President power to sell, transfer, lend, or lease such war materials. The President was to set the terms for aid; repayment was to be “in kind or property, or any other direct or indirect benefit which the President deems satisfactory.” Harry L. Hopkins was appointed (Mar., 1941) to administer lend-lease.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: SLO on December 15, 2003, 06:33:49 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Maverick
Esmewhatever,

Now please go find somewhere else to spew your hatred and bigotry. You aren't worth the time to respond to as the lack of other responses to your rantings have shown.



actually your the dumbprettythang...not ESME
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: NUKE on December 15, 2003, 08:23:39 AM
Quote
Originally posted by SLO
actually your the dumbprettythang...not ESME


personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Yeager on December 15, 2003, 08:32:16 AM
My cats name is Radar.......
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: SLO on December 15, 2003, 08:35:49 AM
Quote
Originally posted by NUKE
personal attacks will not be tolerated.



does that mean I can't call you a sheep shaggin dweeb:D
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Torque on December 15, 2003, 08:45:46 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Yeager
My cats name is Radar.......


it figures...:aok
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Toad on December 15, 2003, 09:57:45 AM
Neutrality and Isolationism  (http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch20b.html)

Quote
The leading war resisters were members of the United States Senate. Among them was the cantankerous Gerald P. Nye of North Dakota, a fighter for the farmer against the interests of the big financial interests, a progressive Republican who chaired a committee investigating the munitions industry, described by some as the "merchants of death."

Nye's committee dramatized points that he and others wanted to make: that the arms industry had made huge profits, had bribed some politicians and had evaded paying taxes.

Nye and others in the Senate were opposed to the United States going to war again in Europe. They pushed for legislation prohibiting the export of arms to any power at war and authorizing the president to prohibit people from traveling on the ships of nations at war, and their bill, the Neutrality Act of 1935, passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Bill was in tune with public opinion -- many Americans believing that the United States should not get involved in Europe's troubles.




Something else for students of history. It seems there was a large part of the US population that didn't want to be involved in another European war. Such a large part in fact, that this law passed Congress pretty easily.

Laws; you know, those things that put boundaries on behaviors.
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: midnight Target on December 15, 2003, 10:10:58 AM
Do ya ever just read the last post in a thread an try to figure out what the heck this has to do with the topic? Now make this connection....

We Got Saddam

to

The Neutrality Act of 1935.


Kinda reminds me of that show "Connections".
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Toad on December 15, 2003, 10:18:24 AM
ummmmmmm...........

Those who will not remember history are doomed to repeat it?

Is that the connection? Do I win?

;)
Title: We Got Saddam!!!!
Post by: Dowding on December 15, 2003, 10:22:12 AM
Quote
Laws; you know, those things that put boundaries on behaviors.


Quote
They pushed for legislation prohibiting the export of arms to any power at war...


Laws; you know those things that naively try to put boundaries on behaviour.