Did Saddam deserve to be treated like a cow in the video?

The Vatican says he was.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=1&u=/nm/20031216/wl_nm/iraq_saddam_vatican_dc

Aren't there some articles in the Geneva convention about not publically humiliating POW's?

I can't feel much sympathy for a brutal dicator like Saddam, but rules are rules. Why wasn't the Geneva convention followed? Didn't the United States bitch and moan when American POW's were held by Iraquis and videotaped?

;)

You bet they did.

Civilized people and societies don't behave like the tyrants or criminals they abhor. He must be brought to trial and adjudged in terms of international law. Then and only then should the appropriate punishment be meted out. I am totally against lynch laws and tactics.

I was simply asserting that they were milking him.

This has been a Roman triumph, with the "barbarian chieftan" paraded for the sport of the empire's citizens and the distraction of its slaves.

Emotions, no matter how justified ,should not override law, even for somebody as despicable as Saddam.

I'm not sure what his legal status is, and in any event I find it rather impossible to summon much sympathy for him. :shrug:

it's about whether the geneva convention was followed.

Does the Geneva Convention even cover ex-dictators who were genocidal megalomaniacs?

Saddam Hussein, a brutal dictator piece of shit who has tortured and killed thousands, is given legitimate POW status, but there are at least two US citizens who haven't even committed a crime as far as I know, imprisoned under the "enemy combatant" label invented by this Fraudministration. And I believe that label is also applied to those at Camp Halliburton in Cuba.

How the hell do they justify that discrepancy??

.

And thats a cinch !!!!!!

You Kaint milk a cow

With a left handed monkey wrench !!!!!!!!

There's a ruthless power structure in this country that believes that rules are for others. You know: foreigners, liberals, poor people. Ein volk, ein Bush, ein reich.

The Geneva Convention prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity". It also requires that prisoners recieve medical treatment.

1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:

(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;

(b) Taking of hostages;

(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;

(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

2. The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

By administering medical care, the US was following the Geneva Convention. Showing a picture the Geneva Convention being followed does not, in my opinion, constitute the type of "outrage upon personal dignity" prohibited by the Convention. Footage of Saddam in chains being paraded naked through the streets of Baghdad would clearly and rightfully constitute such an "outrage upon personal dignity". But this?

If this were just some regular and anonymous Iraqi POW, I don't think anyone would care. In fact, it would show that he was being treated humanely. I doubt that the Convention contemplated double standards.

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

The Arab world didn't need more reason to hate America.

Does anyone think it is anything else?

It seems like the US sunk to the level of Saddam.
I could see Saddam doing the same thing on Iraqi television.
"Here is an enemy of the state, look at him now."
Humiliate your enemies instead of taking the high road.

When the US lowers itself to this level of propaganda and exploitation, it does not serve it's
best interests. We have already disgraced our image in the world... we don't need to do
so further.

Kanary

but I do know that if we hadn't put his mug on TV etc., the arab world would have NEVER believed we had him. It was necessary.

They were playing mind games with Arab media because of his former strongman stature and to emphasize how he was taken alive.

Games...Games..

So we took pictures of him during the capture, and gave him a medical exam and took pictures to prove that we gave him a medical. And we gave him a bath and clean clothes.

Can't see where that is mistreating him. We haven't forced him to make any kind of statements.

He isn't a POW. He is being detained as a war crimes suspect, and as a suspect in a huge list of civil crimes.

And documenting our treatment, by filming it, is prudent to show that we aren't mistreating him. Releasing pictures of parts of the medical exam, and pictures of him after being cleaned up. helps show that we are treating him well.

If someone wants to interpret that as humiliation, that is their problem.

The USA Today article is linked in a previous post, and the Geneva Convention does forbid POWs being displayed publicly. Remember the fuss about our POW's being shown on TV back in March?

And I wonder if he is in fact a POW.

The war may have been illegal, but it doesn't change the fact that he himself is a mass murderer. Two wrongs don't make a right, but at least one wrong is being righted. I saw nothing humiliating in those videos. They were standard "see we aren't torturing him" evidenciary tapes. They didn't mock him in the video or put him in compromising situations as if he were on an episode of Girls Behaving Badly.

Most posters here would not believe the Administration's claim that they had captured him without pictures.

And, technically, I think his status is still up in the air. I think he will eventually be classified a POW. And that will change to war criminal when he is charged.

So, yes, it was fine to show him.

There a probably still a bunch that think it is all some sort of trick and that we don't really have him.