Saddam Hussein deserved what he got. But wouldn’t it have been better if his execution hadn’t looked like just another chapter in the sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis? This account, by John Burns and Marc Santora of the New York Times, describes Saddam’s hanging as the moral equivalent of a roadside bombing.
Update: Here is the video of the actual hanging. (Via Little Green Footballs, whose proprietor, Charles Johnson, pretends to think there’s a functional difference between posting the video and posting a link to the video. His acolytes share his phony outrage.)
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Very well written. They managed to find the words that I couldn’t. I suppose that is why they work for the Times.I’m very curious to see where this Iraqi Soap Operah goes next…
Dan, how is the death penalty ever “just”? What purpose does his death serve? What threat did he, surely one of the world’s ten most closely guarded encarcerated men, pose to anyone?The only people who benefit from this execution are guys like Rumsfeld and Cheney, whose embarrassing habit of cozying up to Saddam in the past would no doubt have come into sharp relief had he had the opportunity to write his book.
I hate to sound like an amateur film critic on such an issue, but this made me wonder. With the near-certainty that Hussein would be executed, and him in custody for more than a year, this is the best they could come up with?No camera tripod, a poorly illuminated gallows room, and executioners all presumably afraid to show their faces. Am I wrong to take this as an indication of how capable the Iraqi government really is?