Editorials
Cell phone video flap diverts attention from Saddam's past
The video showing last week's execution of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein seems to have taken on a life of its own. Few of us were surprised that execution videos would make their way onto the Internet and to television stations.
Little if anything escapes the capture of digital cameras, be they on cell phones or tucked into a pocket. A comedian's racial tirade is captured by a night club patron. A fight at Norman North High School a few weeks ago was reportedly captured on a cell phone camera.
An Iraqi prosecutor told the Associated Press that he witnessed two Iraqi government officials using camera phones at the hanging. Millions of viewers have watched the hanging on the Internet. The executioners appear to torment Mr. Hussein and used the event as a rallying cry for their own political leaders.
Two guards and an official who supervised the execution were arrested Wednesday. The White House declined to comment on the execution fuss, only to say Iraq was a sovereign nation and President Bush is focusing on the new way forward in Iraq.
Mr. Hussein received poor treatment and the recording of the execution is inexcusable but it pales in comparison to the thousands of Iraqis he tortured and murdered during his regime. Testimony at Mr. Hussein's criminal trial revealed his fellow countrymen being fed into a meat grinder while still alive, poison gas dropped on entire villages and rampant kidnappings and rapes.
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Anger won’t resolve problems
Economic stress, politics devoid of hope and the dangers of taking an airplane on vacation have acted to push the thermometer of the American psyche into a pan of boiling water....
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State’s illegal immigrant population on the rise
A report from the Pew Center suggests the United States’ population of undocumented immigrants has declined. Nationally, it is estimated there are about 7.8 million illegal immigrants with about 60,000 in Oklahoma in 2009. The state’s ...
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Let’s toast: Lindsey reopens
The long-awaited reopening of Lindsey Street on the south side of the OU campus is worth celebrating. It came Wednesday afternoon and followed reports in August that the street would not likely be open for Saturday’s home football opener....
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Murder trial has Norman ties
The murder trial of an Oklahoma pharmacist is garnering some large headlines. Jerome Ersland is scheduled to be tried before a new judge later this month. He is accused of shooting to death a masked robber inside a south Oklahoma City ...
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State needs to plan carefully
As if Oklahoma weather weren’t already worry enough, now we have “flash droughts.” According to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey, about half the state is currently experiencing a “mild” drought. According to data from the U.S. Drought ...
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Time to turn a page on mission in Iraq
President Obama’s 20-minute Oval Office speech Tuesday night had no tone of victory. It recounted U.S. achievements and losses in freeing Iraq from a ruthless dictator. Mr. Obama said the same intensity that helped the Iraqis determine ...
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Pakistan’s food crisis may surpass floods
Although the worst flooding in its history has decimated much of Pakistan’s farming region, the disaster to come may be just as big a blow. Officials warned the food crisis could expand into a long-term shortage impacting generations of ...
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Win-Win Week against cancer
Many college athletic teams have put on pink uniforms, T-shirts, ribbons, socks and helmet stickers to show their support for cancer survivors and cancer research. But it’s rare when that expression trickles down to high school teams....
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Stand strongly by your faith
In the summer of 2008, presidential candidate Barack Obama participated in a forum led by the Rev. Rick Warren at the pastor’s southern California church....
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Peace talks hopeful with regular meeting pledge
One of the reasons some peace talks succeed while others fail is the follow-up or lack of it. Just after the agreements are signed and the planes leave, the participants say what they really meant to say but waited until they got home to ...
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Anger won’t resolve problems
