Officially from February 23 to September 6, 1988 (but often thought to extend from March 1987 to May 1989), Saddam Hussein's regime carried out the Anfal (Arabic for "spoils") campaign against the large Kurdish population in northern Iraq. The purpose of the campaign was ostensibly to reassert Iraqi control over the area; however, the real goal was to permanently eliminate the Kurdish problem.
The campaign consisted of eight stages of assault, where up to 200,000 Iraqi troops attacked the area, rounded up civilians, and razed villages. Once rounded up, the civilians were divided into two groups: men from ages of about 13 to 70 and women, children, and elderly men. The men were then shot and buried in mass graves. The women, children, and elderly were taken to relocation camps where conditions were deplorable. In a few areas, especially areas that put up even a little resistance, everyone was killed. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds fled the area, yet it is estimated that up to 182,000 were killed during the Anfal campaign. Many people consider the Anfal campaign an attempt at genocide.

Chemical Weapons Against Kurds

As early as April 1987, the Iraqis used chemical weapons to remove Kurds from their villages in northern Iraq during the Anfal campaign. It is estimated that chemical weapons were used on approximately 40 Kurdish villages, with the largest of these attacks occurring on March 16, 1988 against the Kurdish town of Halabja.
Beginning in the morning on March 16, 1988 and continuing all night, the Iraqis rained down volley after volley of bombs filled with a deadly mixture of mustard gas and nerve agents on Halabja. Immediate effects of the chemicals included blindness, vomiting, blisters, convulsions, and asphyxiation. Approximately 5,000 women, men, and children died within days of the attacks. Long-term effects included permanent blindness, cancer, and birth defects. An estimated 10,000 lived, but live daily with the disfigurement and sicknesses from the chemical weapons. Saddam Hussein's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid was directly in charge of the chemical attacks against the Kurds, earning him the epithet, "Chemical Ali.

Invasion of Kuwait
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi troops invaded the country of Kuwait. The invasion was induced by oil and a large war debt that Iraq owed Kuwait. The six-week, Persian Gulf War pushed Iraqi troops out of Kuwait in 1991. As the Iraqi troops retreated, they were ordered to light oil wells on fire. Over 700 oil wells were lit, burning over one billion barrels of oil and releasing dangerous pollutants into the air. Oil pipelines were also opened, releasing 10 million barrels of oil into the Gulf and tainting many water sources. The fires and the oil spill created a huge environmental disaster.



At the end of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, southern Shiites and northern Kurds rebelled against Hussein's regime. In retaliation, Iraq brutally suppressed the uprising, killing thousands of Shiites in southern Iraq.
As supposed punishment for supporting the Shiite rebellion in 1991, Saddam Hussein's regime killed thousands of Marsh Arabs, bulldozed their villages, and systematically ruined their way of life. The Marsh Arabs had lived for thousands of years in the marshlands located in southern Iraq until Iraq built a network of canals, dykes, and dams to divert water away from the marshes. The Marsh Arabs were forced to flee the area, their way of life decimated. By 2002, satellite images showed only 7 to 10 percent of the marshlands left. Saddam Hussein is blamed for creating an environmental disaster.

That being only a minority of the crimes commited while he was in power, understandably i think that the guy was a colossal arsehole but the point i'm getting to is that i don't think he should have been executed (not that i'm into all that soft second chance shit).

The reason i think he shouldn't have been executed is simply because of how fragile the situation in iraq is. Bush knew that there would be an uproar when he was executed as illustrated by the following pics, but look at it from the iraqis point of view Imagine if 2 foreign leaders (Blair & Bush) came and attacked your country in the hope of finding osoma bin laden who they knew was in afganistan anyway, then started taking your natural resources (The oil fields) and using it for their own gain (namely in my opinion to fund the war they were starting because oil is known to be a very valuble resource and whats the point in spending your tax payers money when you could just as easily take it from iraq and sell it world wide making a nice fat sum of cash in the process) then telling you (the iraqis) that it was all for your own good.

So not only have we brits and yanks pissed off afganistan by bombing them looking for bin laden but then went into iraq after some nuclear weapons that didn't even exist and then to top it off we execute iraqs leader who was a muslim as was bin laden along with the rest of the countries population,
leaving us more prone to attacks from within our own countries.

Considering that there are more muslims than any other religious group on the planet i don't think it was a smart move to execute Saddam, while we are invading their country because its made our soldiers,leaders,countries and even us members of the public in the west more of a hated figure to the middle east, thus making the situation go from bad to worse, i can really see the shits gonna hit the fan soon.

i think he should have been kept confined in a maximum security prison until the situation had calmed down instead of making it worse.

anyways lets hear your opinions on the matter and thanks for reading my rant lol.

Heres that pic i was on about anyway

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The execution brought closure for many of Saddam's victims. It also sends a message to other dictators throughout the world. Are the leaders of Syria, Iran and Pajama Boy in N. Korea next?

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Some of you might want to see this.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tVG5_F5Ado

Yo that shit was CRAZY...

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http://www.myspace.com/kramer101

i know what you mean about the closure, but what do you think is worse being executed or spending the rest of your life in a maximum security prison?
With the execution its over straight away but being in prison for the rest of your life having all your rights taken away and being locked in a cell for the majority of the time is surely a worse punishment????? to be honest i would rather be executed than being locked away for the rest of my life.

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The only appropriate punishment for the likes of Saddam, would be to let the father of a child victim into the cell with a baseball bat for about 30 minutes. I feel the same about child rapists and murderers too.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

On that note i think they should get a few ron jeremy kinda guys in the cell to take it in turns to butt fuck Saddam without the choice of any lube lol turn his ring piece into an inferno and then tell him to sit on a bed of nails afterwards hahahaha

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Naw ... he'd enjoy that. How about vise grips and blow torch ... start with the big toe and work yer way up.

Vi

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Liberals are people that will believe anything twice.

Sack That Camera Guy......

I think that was an easy way to go...Considering all the HURT and PAIN he has caused to so many MANY people... I think though they should have done it a different way...One that would have taken longer just to let him feel what its like to die in pain like all thoughs people did.

But for even someone like him I can not even imagine what it would be like to know in less the 60 seconds you will be dead and there is nothing you can do or say to stop it

I totaly agree on the easy way out thing! Should have locked him in a glass box after injectin him with anthrax & botulism!! Piece of history gone wrong the thing that bothers me is they will b teaching our kids this shit in school all twisted up just like with Hitler in20-50 years!Dont believe me check out the shit on the illuminatti on U tube you will b amazed at some of this shit!Check out the short films 10 mins & under there is some really weird shit on them & the freemasons!!THAT NEW AMERICAN 20 DOLLAR BILL SHIT FREAKS ME OUT MAN!AND THE BUSH FAMILY WHOA EH!I HAD NO IDEA THAT SHIT WENT BACK THAT FAR!For all I know those vids may b gone saw em 3months ago!