World "Divided", Bush Right. One Day To Go

Hey folks,


In about just 24 hours the polling places will start to open their doors. The lights coming on, machines warming up, and people starting to arrive. In 24 hours, we will start the process that will determine what happens to YOUR life. Make no mistake about it folks, YOU will be effected, possibly in some very profound ways, if you vote or not. "Judgement Day" is just 24 hours from now.

Remember what I told you yesterday, about the Saddam verdict?

"It will be all over the place today. People will be arguing how the timing of this verdict is political. It is meant to help President Bush and the Republicans. That is simply Bunk. But they will say it. You will hear how this justifies going there. You will hear how this changes nothing. Blah, blah, blah. I do say this, it is a great day for democracy in Iraq."

Well, my friends, to be right all the time is difficult to some of you out there to accept, but I usual am. According to the AFP {the French version of the AP}

"The world's media was torn between applause for the death penalty given dictator Saddam Hussein and warnings that killing him would only exacerbate divisions threatening to destroy Iraq.

A day after the landmark ruling, commentators also doubted whether it would significantly help US President George W. Bush, architect of the US-led 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam, who faces crucial mid-term elections Tuesday.

The New York Times called for Saddam's execution to be deferred, saying his trial had given Iraq "neither the full justice nor the full fairness it deserved"."

Some more reactions,,

"British newspaper editorials ranged between gloating over the sentence to the left-wing Daily Mirror tabloid, which cautioned in its editorial: "He may have been a brutal dictator, but there is every risk his hanging will bring more bloodshed."

The Guardian said that if "a new Iraq is to ever ... emerge from the ruins of the old, eschewing judicial murder would be a good start." The Independent lamented that the trial had "solved nothing, ended nothing, healed nothing."

The Sun tabloid rejected such arguments as "liberal hand-wringing".

"There can be no more fitting end than a hangman's noose for this gangster-turned-president," the paper's editorial declared.

France's centre-right La Figaro wrote: "It's a shame the verdict can give the impression of legitimizing a military intervention taken under false pretexts, when it should be before all else a founding act for a state based on the rule of law after 24 years of dictatorship."

"For President George W. Bush, the sentence for Saddam is without a doubt a political success that he very much needs ... but he shouldn't forget that the Iraq liberated from its dictator remains ungovernable," Germany's Leipziger Volkszeitung said."

AND,,,,

"In Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald also questioned whether a death sentence for Saddam could save Bush's Republicans from losing crucial Senate and House seats in Tuesday's Congressional vote.

"The probable answer is a resounding 'No'. Such is the nature of the Iraq crisis and the hardening of opposition to the war," the newspaper said.

And in Japan, the influential Asahi Shimbun noted: "Officially, the trial was presided by Iraqis ... but analysts believe this verdict was scheduled to show American voters progress in Iraq, just ahead of the US mid-term election on Tuesday."

Hong Kong's best-selling English newspaper the South China Morning Post criticised Saddam's trial for being "so flawed they made a mockery of the judicial system".

In Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim nation, the Kompas daily said observers "worry about the possibility of a civil war breaking out between the Shiites and the Sunnnis as a complication to the death verdict on Saddam. The future of Iraq is now really at stake," it added.

The newspaper warned that executing the ousted dictator, whom it believed should be given a fair trial, would not move the strife-torn country forward.

The Philippine Star, under an editorial "Message to mass murders," said the verdict would send "a powerful message to those who use genocide as an instrument for perpetuating despotic rule".

Now President Bush is coming to my home town here in Sunny Florida to politic for the Republicans here, then Texas, etc. Can’t wait to see the traffic nightmares that awaits. His response is what you would expect. He said,

"Saddam Hussein's trial is a milestone in the Iraqi people's effort to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law. It is a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," he said.

"Saddam Hussein was a threat," Bush said. "My decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the right decision and the world is better off for it,"

Of course you already knew what the LWL would say. They did. Senator Reid said,

"The Iraqis have traded a dictator for chaos. Neither option is acceptable, especially when it is our troops who are caught in the middle," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"We have seen milestones pass in Iraq before, with no lasting signs of progress," he said. "If today's sentencing is to be any different, we need to take a new direction in Iraq."

Senator Reid? I asked this of Nancy Pelosi, I’ll ask you as well. WHAT DIRECTION? I’ll get the same response. Nothing. There is no plan.

24 hours to go. It all comes down to this. GET READY. GO VOTE!
Peter

Sources:
AFP- "World press divided over Saddam death sentence"
Reuters-"Bush calls Saddam conviction milestone in Iraq"