News > Politics > I Learned It From Watching You, Saddam

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TUESDAY JUNE 20 2006 10:00 AM

I Learned It From Watching You, Saddam

Tags: Iraq

In the U.S., many states prohibit convicts from voting. In Iraq, convicts are used as pawns to prop up faltering governments:

Iraq, October 2002:

The prisoners...left in haste Sunday after President Saddam Hussein decreed a general amnesty for Iraq's incarcerated.
[...]
The amnesty seemed sure to bolster Hussein's political standing never mind that a recent referendum indicated 100 percent support as he faces the possibility of having to rally his people to war against the US.

The gesture also demonstrated how the rule of law in Iraq is subject to official caprice.

Iraq June 2006:

Iraq today began a prisoner-release program aimed at promoting national reconciliation, by freeing about 500 detainees.

The release was announced yesterday by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who said 2,000 detainees would be freed, a quarter of them today.
[...]
"This initiative is to ensure the success of the reconciliation project, which we hope will take Iraq out of its current crisis," al-Maliki said in an e-mailed statement.

"Law and order" Republicans attempting to impose their beliefs on a culture used to blanket amnesty is a fitting snapshot. We up mandatory minimums for votes, they open the jail gates. Any wonder things are going so well over there?

Comments

acidslug

Memphis, TN

OLD SKOOL

JUN 20, 2006 10:56 AM

Apprecate the sentiment, but this is not a terrific news post. Considering the rate at which we vaccum up civilians over there, I'd be surprised if there wern't a whole lot more than 2000 people that need to be let go. Not to mention the fact that the scale of releases talked about in the CS monitor are order(s) of magnitude greater than the ones talked about on bloomberg.

Bullshit axe grinding like this does nothing except tarnish by association anyone who does not support the administration. This is news? With all the insane fucking shit going down over there? Please.