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I attach a link Andrew kindly sent me on the recent
amnesty by Saddam.
I had originally found it difficult to think that this
is a last ditch effort (as described by NYT) to
increase popularity, given that most Iraqis, I would
imagine would think that they live in a more secure
society if those who are rightly locked up are locked
up. But having read the NYT article, maybe there are
few in Iraq who are justly locked up (or is it just a
media distortion again to paint the picture of a
totally unjust country where those who should be
rightly locked up are in face free?).
In any event, I have wondered if this is a "poison
pill" strategy i.e. trying to turn Iraq into a
criminal world (far-fetched but not unimaginable if
150,000 prisoners are out) such that occupation and
the subsequent governance by the West/UN is going to
be a much more difficult and costly?
Any views?
Jiale
Hello Jiale...
You can check out the article from the New York
Times at
"http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/21/international/middleeast/21IRAQ.html?ex=103
6167548&ei=1&en=83a6c057fcf6964c". It's a fairly good
article and it
speaks
about what may have caused Saddam to do what he did.
It appears that it
is
being carried out with the exception of spies for the
US and "the
Zionist
entity" as Iraq referred to Israel. Here in the US
there has been a
lack of
substantive coverage on this issue (Saddam releasing
all political
prisoners
is not too convenient in regards to the war-mongering
of Bush), but I
do know
that the Bush administration has been scoffing at this
latest Iraq
move. An
article about this can be found at
"http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1164052002".
As far
as how
the society will cope, it seems as if the murderers
will not be
released
unless the victim's family will allow for it and
thieves will have to
repay
their debt, but as far as potentially violent
criminals who did not
murder peo
ple, you raise a good point. It appears though, at
least in their own
words,
that the criminals will not go back to crime as they
profess they will
never
be criminals again. We shall see what happens, but it
is a very
interesting
development whatever the eventual outcome.
Andrew
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