Hanging Saddam

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

• get me wrong
• just me
• found
• disconcerting

• grainy
• carried out
• archaic
• stepped in

• three-ring circus

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

Everyone who wanted to see it could see it: the final moments of the life of Saddam Hussein. The grainy cell phone images were posted all over the Internet and the now famous photo of his corpse in the body bag, with the neck grotesquely twisted, was on the front page of the New York Times.

The global community was against the execution of Hussein. But the US and Iraqi governments seemed determined, and hastily carried out the sentence.

The footage of the hanging is disturbing, to say the least. The behavior of the guards leaves Hussein himself appearing to have more dignity than his executioners.

Listen to Kevin and Marni talk about this bizarre historical event.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Kevin

Marni

Kevin:  Have you been reading about the controversy about the execution of Saddam Hussein?

Marni:  I have a little bit. I, I just have to say, I… I just think it’s so interesting, you know, I… that the US executed someone by hanging them. I mean, it just seems so archaic.

Kevin:  It’s appalling. Now the US claims that it was Iraq, but I, I, I really think the US government could have stepped in and stopped it. I mean, it was… it appeared to be, like, a three-ring circus. I mean, don’t get me wrong. He was a terrible human being.

Marni:  Of course.

Kevin:  But…

Marni:  I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. No one disputes that. But, you know… it’s that sort of whole thing. Taking one eye for an eye and…

Kevin:  Which I don’t agree with but that’s just me. I, I think, um, it was done in such an unprofessional way and I think it’s easy for the US government to say, “Well, it was the Iraqi government that did the hanging.” Yet we could have easily stepped in and, and arranged that better if it needed to take place.

Marni:  Right. Well it seems like it could have been a little more private. I mean, the public execution, that’s, I guess, the, the part that just seems so archaic.

Kevin:  The cell phone pictures…

Marni:  Yeah. It’s… It’s just….

Kevin:  The taunting from the guards… It was really… I found it very disconcerting.

Marni:  Absolutely.

Kevin:  Disappointing.

 

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