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The pictures were taken by a small child who made the camera out of old artillery shell pieces and depleted uranium, employing a shiny cover from a MRE for a reflecting surface, and then had them smuggled out by Faux Reporters.
BEFORE THE HANGING
---and
AFTER THE HANGING
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On another track but on this same theme, this question has come to our attention. Can someone out there please help us? There has been the repeated use of the word "botched" to describe the execution. In what way was it "botched?"
8 comments:
Well, I hate to be morbid about this, but technically, a proper "long drop" hanging will snap the cervical vertabrae and sever the spinal cord. "Ideally" unconsciousness would be immediate and death would occur shortly thereafter.
The drop can be botched by being either too long (where decapitation occurs) or too short (long suffocation...up to 20 minutes). A grim anecdote about that: The hangings of the Nazis convicted at Nurnberg (Jodl, Keitel, etc.) were all botched and some spent many minutes slowly suffocating to death (hence the term "Spandau Ballet"). The "clean" version is that the executioner underestimated how much weight the prisoners lost while imprisoned. Actually, it was more likely that the executioner wanted the to suffer a little before taking the express elevator to Hell.
Of course, a quick hanging is mostly for the consideration of the audience and the executioners who have to pick up the mess. The whole thing is abominable, really; we really are better off without it.
I hope I can remember all of Crawford's comment the next time someone asks me " Hey, how they hangin' ?"
I agree hanging is a barbaric practice but no sense losing our heads over it I guess.
Botched is in the eye for an eye of the beholder since dead is still dead, accomplishing the objective whether it takes 3 seconds or 3 hours.
I still don't understand why killing morally justifies more killing. Does it really make anyone feel better ???
Clearly, it does make some people feel better.
In the case of Saddam, his killing serves a political purpose: It ends once and for all the chatter we've heard about bringing him back to "solve" the Iraq problem. Not much chance of that now.
I'm generally against the death penalty, but how is it any worse than shooting people randomly during war?
I wouldn't call Saddam's execution a political hanging as much as a revenge hanging. Did you know that Moqtada al-Sadr's dad was put to death during Saddam's regime?
Also, did you know that Saddam was executed during the 'Eid' holiday? It falls on different days depending on whether you're Sunni or Shia. Saddam was hanged while Sunnis were still celebrating. Kind of a political "F--- You!" to the Sunnis.
I don't think, at this point, Saddam had any chance of regaining power...It's a Shiite (and Kurdish) 'country' now. The Sunnis (and especially the Ba'ath-ists are F***ed.
Oh, and about the chatter; They can talk all they want to in the think tanks. It's a civil war over there, we're stuck in the middle of it, and the army is trapped there.
The Iraqis (and to some extent the Iranians) hold all the cards and i doubt our interests will only be addressed as far as how useful our presence is to the various warring parties.
Dien Bien Phu?
first of all I think beheading is a good way to execute people. They should be asleep when it's done, though. Just because there's a mess doesn't mean anything.
Also I think c.t. is right about the war.
Mike
Personally (isn't that about the only way someone can say something?) I feel the 'death penalty' is just that... a penalty. You go killing thousands and thousands of people because of their ethnicity or religious affiliation and the penalty is...death. That seems fairly cut and dried. I'm not sure why the guillotine isn't used instead of hanging, though. That, however, is cut and wet.
I still can't help thinking that if you're going to hang a person, it is foreseeable that the distinguished guest may lose his head. Does that mean the hanging is "botched?" Seems to me it's incontrovertibly successful.
I think I agree with Crawford that we would really be better off without it. There must be better ways.
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