Which was worse? Slavery in the US or Saddam in Iraq? And why?

Answer 1

Consider that slavery was practiced in the US at a time when slavery was still common around the world. This is not meant to lessen how horrible slavery is, but rather to point out that the US did not invent slavery and is not alone in its guilt. Sadly, US was behind most of Europe in abolishing slavery, but not by much...

France abolished slavery in 1794

England abolished slavery in 1834

Russia abolished slavery in 1861

Romania abolished slavery in 1864

The US abolished slavery in 1865

Any effort to find relativism between Saddam being a ruthless dictator in the 21st Century when totalitarian governments like his are the exception and slavery in the US have no practical use in contemporary policy formation nor in calculations of moral authority.

Answer 2

I think you have to consider the times when you address this question. Slavery in the US was not much different than the norm worldwide at that time. Does it make it right? Absolutely not but it was "normal". Saddam's behavior is in more recent times and stands out from the norm even if he surely wasnt alone. I would say based on the times, Saddam was worse. Based on which lasted longer I would say slavery.
I am shocked that some think that non Africans buying slaves was worse than Africans selling them. I would argue that neither is right but that those who would sell their OWN are worse. Two wrongs never make a right but do not let the sellers off the hook...

Answer 3

Hey Fallen, you say when people bring up slavery they show only the bad side. Show me a godd side to slavery. No matter how you look at it both slavery and the living conditions under Saddam were sick.

Answer 4

You are trying to compare apples and oranges with this question. What does one have to do with the other? They are two entirely different aspects of human cruelty.

You shouldn't just limit the slavery question to the U. S. Slavery has existed in the world for thousands of years and is NOT an invention of the United States. And it still exists in parts of the world, in the Middle East and Asia in particular.

The United States dealt with its slavery, even though it may have taken longer than it should have. It was a difficult political situation that in the end claimed the lives of more American citizens than all other wars the U. S. was involved in combined.

Saddam was a dictator who used murder, terror and force to maintain his hold on power on Iraq. Dissenters were tortured and/or shot, people of different ethnicities (Kurds and Shi'a)than his Ba'ath party (Sunni) were murdered with nerve and mustard gases and buried in mass graves.

Slavery began with the chiefs of those who were enslaved selling their subjects into servitude for gold or trade goods. Saddam maintained power by murder and torture.

How do the two compare?

Answer 5

Saddam executed one of his own countrymen just because the Saddam MP caught him throwing away a newspaper with Saddam's picture on it. He was very, very cruel to his own people. Not to mention his wanting to constantly take over other countries and obtain more power.

Slavery. Horrible, very much so. But it seems when people bring this up they just show the worse in it to make America and whites look bad, but fail to mention how whites in the north wanted to end it and how blacks would sell out other blacks into slavery for a price. The door would swing both ways on slavery.

Answer 6

Since slavery is not longer being done in the US and saddam was a current problem it goes to saddam.

Despite some of the best rewrites of history here are some facts to consider.

Slaves fought for the South and help their masters reload their weapons.

The South too had blacks fighting for the South.

We done away with slavery like we done away the evils of saddam.

If slavery is so awful people let me ask you this question.

Why do African American go Muslim because it was Muslims who sold them into slavery.

Muslims still practice slavery.

Answer 7

None of the above
The worst of the worst nightmare is the #1 criminal you know, George Walter the #1.
It has done more damage than a million Saddams or a revolution or sale of 1 billion of the so called slaves.

Answer 8

Slavery, hands down. Even if you assert that genocide happened in Iraq, how about the estimated 2 million indigenous inhabitants that died as a result of land acquisition and westward expansion over two centuries. I would add that hundreds of thousands more died AFTER slavery was abolished in the US...and don't forget the KKK and lynchings that happened in the US since.
I don't see Saddam any worse than the US was at times in its history.

Answer 9

Slavery, because it was a manifestly immoral practice accepted and perpetrated for generations by a nation founded on the very principles of freedom.

Saddam on the other hand was a rogue dictator who had no pretense to moral superiority or respect for human life but was never allowed to expand his ways outside his own country. When he refused to capitulate he was taken out.

Answer 10

The blunders and slip-ups with human errors in self oppressing with slavery and cheap-skate glory of idol worshiping the dead Mummy of failures and horrors of the past from the graveyards of different ghostly ancestor's culture and custom created in own backyards in kicking the butts of God as success of national identity.
Without being aware of the mess created in own backyards.
Luke 6.39-40,41-45,46-49
What do you think?