I think it's wonderful. Iraq is now at peace and no longer have to suffer violence and bloodshed.

(Oh, wait...)

Thanks for the coverage S but wasn't thrilled to wake up to a man (albiet really evil) with a noose around his neck. Hunger for power makes us monsters:(

What's marginally interesting about this is that so few heads-of-state have been executed after WWII. Only Ceauşescu and the Liberian prez Doe comes to mind.

Other than that, Saddam's been "dead" since his trial ceased to capture anyone's imagination.

Scratch that. There have been other presidents who've met the axe, noose and firing squads. Nonetheless, none were more powerful than Saddam.

When I heard this last night, I felt very uncomfortable with the fact he was hanged. Like Abhi, I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I don't think this is the sole reason why I am uncomfortable. I think they should've waited until his second (on-going) trial was done--the one where he was being tried for killing 182,000 Iraqi Kurds with chemical weapons--before hanging him. As it is, I heard reports that they want to continue the trial posthumously. That seems farcical at best. His death was his sentence for the revenge killings of 150+ Iraqi Kurds. I feel justice should've also been there for the families and people of the other attacks as well. I think this is why I feel uncomfortable.

Also, I am worried that he has now been martyred and the insurgency will get much worse, before it gets any better...especially the intial reports that he was hung alongside two others. The parallells to Jesus on his cross there were startling. Luckily, that has been reported as false now.

Hunger for power makes us monsters:(

Yes it does.

Excuse me I had some incorrect facts! It was 148 Shiite Muslims he was convicted for and 180,000 Iraqi Kurds he was on trial for.

post 9/11 blues:

While I too have no personal sympathy for this man, I found myself crying last evening in the fanciest hotel room I've ever been in. My partner asked me fearfully what is wrong; perhaps thinking I'm upset because he did not share my enthusiasm of wanting to out for our first time in Boston.
I couldn't answer him. I know it had to do with Saddam, but why would I cry over this man?
It took me a moment to realize that it had nothing to do with Saddam personally but rather the spectacle of the Asian/Middle Eastern man about to be killed. They ceaselessly showed images of him (in the news channels accessible to me) unkempt, hairy, dirty, savage – reminiscent of other constructions of the Asian/middle eastern/Muslim “terrorist”. While Saddam himself may deserve the title of “terrorist”, I could not help but also think about how easily this and other such images on tv vilify and justify the imprisonment/death of people who belong to my communities.
Perhaps the exhibition leading up to Saddam’s death was just a catalyst for the emotional explosion brewing inside me. Much like this white couple on the computer beside me discussing how they want to see a video clip of him dying makes me want to just stop typing, turn around and slap them and continue wrapping up this post. It ignited the anxieties and fears and anger that I build up in the post 9/11 islamophobic everyday.
At the forefront of the story of the brown man about to die were other brown men.
The trials were a joke. (While I do think he should be persecuted - maybe not by death) Making me think of arbitrary “law” - legal justifications for detention centers/prisons, death penalties and the like.
Last night, the tv scared me. It made me angry. It made me nervous.
I’m not sure how I feel about last night’s outburst now. I just have no desire to take in any coverage of the event just yet. I need to sort through my emotions and thoughts.
I think I just needed a place to vent before I could start.

The entire event seemIn order to retain my sanity I won’t be checking out Fox News to see what gloating may be going on.

Damn Right!! they will milk this event for another six months.

As you said,me- no fan of Saddam - but was a bit sad at how it all came to this.

LK, that's strong.

Thank you.

BBC have good coverage including interviews with Iraqis in London whose families were killed by him. As disturbing as I find the image of a man seconds from death, I don't feel any of the dissonance that LK describes, but maybe that's just a different dynamic and society he is in. There is horror of course, as you cannot help but imagine the thoughts and feelings of a man as he takes his last breaths and considers his final few moments. What expressions does the face make? What does that look like?

I have to say though, that this war has been the ultimate snuff movie --- from the beheadings of hostages for your pleasure on the internet to Abu Ghraib to the Big Man about to drop through the floor --- and always in frame the sinister man with a black balaclava covering his face lurking about --- one big long dirty shit-stained grubby sado-masochistic snuff movie war.

Red Snapper, my agreement with what LK said is less with the "brown savage" issue, and more the question of killing, the expectation that killing is somehow connected to justice. I don't trust this version of justice. And I feel quite strongly John Donne's "ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." Saddam's part of the human condition, vile as he is. I think one can feel this regardless of what society one lives in. It's not as easy to erase that as the "victors" think.

Right you are on the "snuff movie" though. That's perceptive (and creepy). Hadn't thought of it that way.

Yes I feel horror and revulsion and dirty fascination to watch that footage again on the BBC website.

I have to say though, that this war has been the ultimate snuff movie --- from the beheadings of hostages for your pleasure on the internet to Abu Ghraib to the Big Man about to drop through the floor --- and always in frame the sinister man with a black balaclava covering his face lurking about --- one big long dirty shit-stained grubby sado-masochistic snuff movie war.

Yes. A powerful observation. I'll be carrying that in my mind for a while.

As in life, now in death, Gerald Ford finds himself overshadowed by the legacy of another controversial president

And I feel quite strongly John Donne's "ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee." Saddam's part of the human condition, vile as he is. I think one can feel this regardless of what society one lives in. It's not as easy to erase that as the "victors" think

Sure, and when you watch the footage it is so pitiful and creepy because you stare at yourself when you see him bewildered and facing the man in a black balaclava come to greet him, you imagine being in those shoes, even if only subliminally --- that's the primal fascination with depictions of death. Except usually we read about things in newspapers or books or see them in plays and movies --- but this is real, it's an excrement-on-the wall snuff movie, and it has been running on prime time ever since the planes hit the offices and the people jumped out of windows all the way to now.

you imagine being in those shoes, even if only subliminally

And part of the power of such things is their tedious ordinariness. The poor lighting, the unsteady camerawork, the bad or non-existent audio. Either you're standing there in his shoes, or you're the one operating the camcorder. The result is a video just like any other home-video, except...

the hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness of the news media is tiresome. during the rwanda genocide they had no problem showing photos and images of the most gruesome sort, but during katrina they made a big fuss about showing dead bodies. likewise they show hussein's execution footage up to a certain, pre-determined "civilized" point but want us to believe they are protecting us from the more barbaric act of the actual hanging (watching him prepare to die is ok and somehow more "civilized"). either show it all or don't show it at all. stopping it half way doesn't make it any more civilized or better and showing all of it doesn't make it any worse.

LK:

Your persecution complex is too much for me to bear, especially since you're crying in a fancy hotel room in the greatest nation the world has ever known. But what gets me is when you project your own racialist views onto others, like the couple (gratuitously described as white) who want to see Saddam's hanging. Where other's see an individual, you see a representative of "our" community. I don't doubt that there are some whites who share your view; in fact that's precisely my point...perhaps you have more in common with them than meets the eye.

they show hussein's execution footage up to a certain, pre-determined "civilized" point but want us to believe they are protecting us from the more barbaric act of the actual hanging

Last night on CNN the body count (dead & mutilated) was over 100 and they kept replaying the same footage over and over again while assuring the nauseated viewers that we would be warned if anything "too graphic was about to be shown".

He faced death with more calmness and dignity than I had expected of him, going by his behaviour during the trial. Perhaps he was relieved that he wasn't going to be humiliated and tortured first, as so many of his victims had been.

Executing him on the day of the holy muslim feast of sacrifice (Eid-ul-Adha) was an incredibly dumb decision. Many muslims will find the timing offensive. Besides, Saddam in his last letter had offered himself up as a sacrifice to the arab/iraqi cause, and now his partisans among the baathists, tikritis etc have been handed poetic material on a platter to romanticize and exalt his "martyrdom".

LK cries because of the spectacle of a Brown man dying. Pathetic. Lugubrious. Just as some Indians cannot think beyond caste, some Americans cannot think beyond race. We are all victims of our categories.

I have no sympathy for Saddam. But, nonetheleless, Bush and some fundamenatalists is sure to count this as a victory in personal ways. That the people of one religion can show people of another religion "the light", no matter how grisly the showing is. It fosters a black and white , and therefore easy to govern, view of the Middle East. Yes, lets get the bad guys and things will fall into place. Except, badness comes in many hues, not all as blinding as SH.

What's marginally interesting about this is that so few heads-of-state have been executed after WWII. Only Ceauşescu and the Liberian prez Doe comes to mind.....Scratch that. There have been other presidents who've met the axe, noose and firing squads.

Wonder why Wikipedia neglects to include the hanged Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, in any of its lists of executed political leaders.

Being a desi head of state is probably the most dangerous job in the world. Besides Bhutto of Pakistan, other desi Presidents and Prime Ministers who have paid the highest price for their ambitions include the assassinated Indira and Rajiv Gandhi of India, Mujibur Rahman and Zia ur-Rahman of Bangladesh, Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka....

Then there were the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi of India and King Birendra of Nepal....

I cried too because he looked like a sad and scared human being. They should have thrown him into that prison Rudolph Hess was in - for life.

I don't know, this experience, particularly the whole "spectacle" of it all, really put me at ends and definitely let me feeling tense, as well. Not as much for the whole idea of death as a form of justice, but I guess moreso because his death feels emblematic of the disgusting hypocrisy of U.S. involvement in Iraq throughout his entire career and death. I didn't feel the same relief or sense of closure I've felt when other dictators have died, instead I felt angry and upset.

On the local news they interrupted broadcast to say, "The era of Saddam Hussein - public enemy #1 for the U.S. for the past 20 years - is over for Iraq. The era of violence, however, continues." I just felt so repulsed, as if the only kind of violence in Iraq is Iraqi-designed violence.

And, for those making snide or derisive comments re: LK's post - could we put down the haterade? There's no need to make personal attacks or be cruel when someone's sharing their feelings. If you don't agree, just say "I disagree" and move on.

I have to say though, that this war has been the ultimate snuff movie --- from the beheadings of hostages for your pleasure on the internet to Abu Ghraib to the Big Man about to drop through the floor --- and always in frame the sinister man with a black balaclava covering his face lurking about --- one big long dirty shit-stained grubby sado-masochistic snuff movie war.

This idea is really disturbing, to say the least... and, my god, how true.

Eid Mibarak.

This was the first thing my family saw when we woke up for eid prayers this morning - well, I missed watching it because I was running late, but I heard the outrage in the living room from my dad and sister. This morning's Eid visits were full of outrage from the men folks because 1) they showed the hanging on television and 2) they hung him on Eid. My father was more outraged over this then I've seen him in a while. Killing Hussein wasn't the issue, how they did it, and show it to Americans was...

I see there point, I guess. I'm not surprised, by either the media's protrayal, the strategic rush execution on Eid, or the situation. But I purposely have not turned on any new outlets today - I avoid any visuals of death when possible (including scary movies)- and I'm sure my reaction would be far more similar to the ones in these comments if I had seen the execution...

I oppose the death penalty, and I think the worst thing about this whole mess is that it was shown on TV... but I'm a little confused about where exactly the disagreement with LK is. I think what I'm hearing is that his/her racilization of the hanging misses the point about human rights for all, but does frustration over the "terrorist brown man" image really have no place in this? On the point that Manju brought up, there most certainly are white people who oppose the death penalty, and some of them may even believe that Saddam Hussein's brown Middle Eastern look is inextricably tied to his sentence. But LK identifies with the brown Middle Eastern community in a way that non-brown, non-Middle Eastern people cannot (which is not to say that there can't be brown Middle Eastern people who disagree with LK's view). (And keep in mind that LK has already clarified that he/she feels no personal sympathy for Saddam Hussein.) I think LK's thoughts deserve some slack - and by that I don't mean coddling but actual consideration. If I'm missing something here, can someone please explain?

Considering Taz's comment, I guess I should also include the Muslim identification in that.

Well, I don't watch the television news (CNN or Fox) and I won't watch it on youtube or whatever. I don't want certain images in my brain: I've seen enough dead bodies in real life. I don't even like shows like CSI or movies where the camera lingers over the murdered body, an actor of course, fake-bloodied for our entertainment. I've never liked gore and somehow, the lingering always seems obscene to me. The murder victim is nobody, nothing. Sad that so many of Saddam's victims never got this amount of attention, but that is life, I suppose. The individual is easier to fathom than thousands upon thousands.

If you felt sad it is because death is not a thing to celebrate and you are civilized and humane. (Note, I make no particular statements about who is civilized and who is not). But, as I said in reply to a friend in an e-mail who was so shaken he recited a jewish prayer for the dead, this was no common criminal, but a sociopath whose regime brought mass murder to the Iraqi people, among others. Within this realm, the realm of genocide and crimes to humanity, I think a hanging is different. I have no idea what will happen in Iraq, which puts me in with all the rest of the pundits although the paid ones will keep pretending they somehow know so they can get that next check, but if anyone deserved the death penalty, and I waffle back and forth on that, than he was among the deserving. I wish I could think of a word better than deserving, but I can't. It's not quite right, but I can't get it right. Perhaps there are no 'right' words.

Anyway, this is not about 'us' as a community, brown or otherwise. This is between Saddam and his victims.

how many leaders need to be executed? who killed the sioux? who plundered bengal to finance the industrial revolution? who killed sikhs at jalianwalla bagh? which leader killed lebanese children at Qana? who is killing now? who made the borders at Kashmir? at Kuwait? at Palestine?

the entrepreneurial zeal need to be reigned in. you lobby for the car industry, you warm the globe, then you look for solutions. act before others create the world you live in.

act before white men think they need to save brown men from brown men

Words to live by. This accomplishes nothing.

He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, Aphorism 146
German philosopher (1844 - 1900)

If I'm missing something here, can someone please explain?

Shruti:

For me, it's the perennial need to turn the oppressor into a victim, to worry about Islamophobia w/o any reference to the fact that something really scary is going on within islam, and to project ones own hyper-racialized view of the world onto others. Hate groups often emerge from communities with an exaggerated sense of their own victimization, and I don’t think we need to feed this w/i our own.

now i don't doubt that some whites see the world the way LK thinks they do, but to worry about such bigots without any reference to context reminds me of those who equate McCarthyism with communism, or black racism with white...i mean, all these things are equally bad in theory, but they’re not quite equivalent in reality.

first of all taz, and the other muslims: eid mubarak..

but

This morning's Eid visits were full of outrage from the men folks because 1) they showed the hanging on television and 2) they hung him on Eid. My father was more outraged over this then I've seen him in a while.../blockquote>

i remember watching the story break late last night when they hung him...they did it hours 'before' eid since they didn't want it to occur on the holy muslim day..

Siddhartha voiced my feelings in his first sentence.

I really do believe that the death penalty is revenge killing and I know something about that.

The FARC guerillas in Colombia abducted one of our family members. The Paramilitaries murdered our uncle. These two groups are essentially at war with each other. This is only in the past five years, I won't even go into stories from decades past, etc. My point is that we, mi familia, have all managed to stay against the penalty of death, even my atheistic ass. The hundred years of violence in Colombia continues, all avenging some other violence. The cycle just rolls there, and all over the world.

Agree with LK and inothernews. Hanging Saddam on the first day of Eid while George Bush slept (reported in the Hindustan Times) was and is unspeakable. I certainly see a strong element of racism in the manner and timing of this. I can't imagine any Muslim person condoning the timing of this execution. However I can easily envision the people who determined the date thinking that pilgrims about to disperse after the Hajj would not be able to congregate for protest, that the deed would have been done before the Gregorian calendar's year end, and so forth. It was also legally questionable. I think
Tariq Ali expresses something consonant with LK's position. An Englishman I met last evening told me it was going to happen "this weekend" at 7 pm EST. He had the grace to admit that it was a mistake...

Links that didn't post:

Tariq Ali

http://www.counterpunch.com/tariq12302006.html

Saddam case

http://www.law.case.edu/saddamtrial/

Walking down
the Rue le Jour
Desis promenade
without a clue
‘Hanging’s horrible
but death is true’
Harvard Lehigh
and NYU
Desi dons’
mumbling muse
‘around his neck
put that noose’
Hand on heart
and an anthem blue
‘Not with us?
Then what r u?’
Sad was Ham
in a burning Bush
Secular scribe’s
terribly ‘khush’
The man was a killer
In a Yankee thriller
The hermeneutic code
Went all awry
WMDs
were such a hoax
They needed a ruse
To kill the bloke

I felt sad and outraged at the timing, Mind you I am not a Muslim. I hope some of the western leaders will be punished for their crimes against Iraqi people.

I felt uncomfortable reading this post, we don't have to look for a desi connection in everything.

I certainly see a strong element of racism in the manner and timing of this.

The whole occupation has racist undertones. The forest is burning, to hell with one tree.

For me, it's the perennial need to turn the oppressor into a victim, to worry about Islamophobia w/o any reference to the fact that something really scary is going on within islam, and to project ones own hyper-racialized view of the world onto others. Hate groups often emerge from communities with an exaggerated sense of their own victimization, and I don’t think we need to feed this w/i our own.

Yeah right, I was beginning to wonder by looking at the protests if they have put to death someone like Gandhi. :-)
But I should also admit that the video of Saddam's execution looks very similar to the Al-qaeda beheading videos..

Nice, Panini. :)

we don't have to look for a desi connection in everything.

Agreed. There is no desi connection here. A human connection, absolutely. But no "brown" angle -- unless you happen to be a Muslim and identify with Saddam on that level. Even then, he was executed by fellow Arab Muslims, in an Arab Muslim country, apparently according to procedures for execution which Saddam himself had been involved in establishing about 40 years ago.

Saddam has my sympathy to some degree as my fellow human being -- although he brought all this onto himself, in my view, and his considerable crimes against humanity w.r.t other Iraqis and his neighbouring countries are well-established -- but certainly not on some kind of alleged (non-existent) fellow ethnic/racial level. I wonder if the people here who have apparently shed such tears for him also cry whenever they hear about a criminal back in India/Pakistan etc being executed, purely because they share the same ethnicity, and regardless of the crimes of the criminal concerned.

For the record, I don't believe in the death penalty, either on a personal or a religious level. I also agree to a considerable extent with MD's post #31.

In any case, Saddam has now had to face God for his actions, and I expect the consequences for his soul have already been decided, for better or for worse. So if you are going to sympathise with him on that front, as a fellow human being, then let us hope that he gains some measure of remorse and awareness of his crimes and thereby achieves his redemption at some point. It is distasteful and inhumane to celebrate someone's death -- regardless of how malevolent the person concerned may be -- but Saddam bears responsibility for the outcome of his actions, both with regards to what happened in this life and what will happen (or has already happened) to him in the next.

When was the last time they gave such an intimate wall to wall coverage of a freaking hanging. I am glad they put the nail in Saddamn, but for heavens sake, didnt we all kinda move on from hanging a few decades back. And for the media to play it over and over again, with second to second analysis of Saddams every momemt before his death was in a ridiculously poor taste.

First the open torture debate, now the gratuitous coverage of a 'hanging', 9-11 has set us back by a few decades.

I was thinking that at least they didn't make him kneel on the ground in front of a large crowd of spectators and behead him with a sword, Saudi-style.....

I was thinking that at least they didn't make him kneel on the ground in front of a large crowd of spectators and behead him with a sword, Saudi-style.....

they would have showed that on television as well with in depth analysis of a public beheading. I understand that the hangers had to protect their identity so that they can enjoy their freedoms but hooded man dragging Saddam to the gallows certainly reeks of vigilante justice.

Jai,

Saddam bears responsibility for the outcome of his actions

Does this line of thinking also apply to President Bush?

I'm wary of moralizing the death of a tyrant as if tyrants exist in a vacuum and their moral shortcomings can be neatly and wholly attributed to themselves as if it's a simple line, from A to B. Culpability is not in dispute, Saddam = bad, Saddam = exception to the rule and so forth. In other words, he is being treated as a historical accident whereas I think there are conditions that foster the development of such people and after they die, the conditions may still remain.

There's this messy but good phrase, methodological individualism, which "is a philosophical method aimed at explaining and understanding broad society-wide developments as the aggregation of decisions by individuals" [*]. I mention this because to reduce Saddam to the narrative: he chose tyranny --> committed X, Y, & Z --> personally responsible for X, Y, & Z --> X, Y, & Z will not happen again because he is dead does not satisfactorily address the times- the historical, political, and social settings- from which he arose.

In other words, there's a historical lesson developing right now. A short reading on Saddam's biography suggests that the seeds for the next Saddam have been sown.

Well, the footage of the entire execution, showing the trap door open and Saddam swinging with his eyes bulging out, taken from a mobile phone camera, is online. With sound. (the link is to the BBC report, not the actual video)

I just read this editorial by Jason Burke, one of the best writers on the Middle East and political Islam, basher of the neo-cons. He said:

In 2003, back in Sulaymaniyah, I sat down in a prison cell with a captured Baath party torturer. 'How old was the youngest person you ever tortured?' I asked him. 'Oh, about two or three,' he said unapologetically. 'We didn't torture the kids themselves obviously, but holding a toddler over a boiling saucepan is a very good way of getting their parents to talk.' Why do I return to all this? Because I can't help but be happy that Saddam has been executed.

The fact that Saddam is now dead, whatever the manner of his passing, is a rare bit of positive news. Given the nightmare that is Iraq today, I'll save my sympathy for those who suffered under his bloody reign and those who still suffer today.

This is one of those things that makes you feel morally grubby, no matter what you feel about it. And I think I feel everything about it.

Doordarshan writes:
>>Executing him on the day of the holy muslim feast of sacrifice (Eid-ul-Adha) was an incredibly dumb decision. Many muslims will find the timing offensive
Taz,
>>This morning's Eid visits were full of outrage from the men folks because 1) they showed the hanging on television and 2) they hung him on Eid.

The decision to hang him on Eid was made by .... muslims!

Jai,

>>Saddam bears responsibility for the outcome of his actions, both with regards to what happened in this life and what will happen (or has already happened) to him in the next.

Precisely. This is the reason why I am against the death penalty.

M. Nam

I can't imagine any Muslim person condoning the timing of this execution.

Um, yesterday was the start of the Sunni Eid. In Iraq, the Shia Eid starts two days later (goes back to politicking). Since this was a very sectarian decision, it makes sense that the Shia who dominate the current Iraqi govt would choose the start of the Sunni Eid to stick it to the Sunnis as it were.

It was sickening to hear someone cry out Sadrist slogans right before the hanging - so much for truth and reconciliation.

I was thinking that at least they didn't make him kneel on the ground in front of a large crowd of spectators and behead him with a sword, Saudi-style.....

..or the meat grinder he apparently used on people according to a trial witness.

Non von Mises,

Does this line of thinking also apply to President Bush?

It applies to every single one of us on this planet.

Participate in ego-fuelled, malicious, and/or generally misguided activities, and you bear a serious risk of matters eventually catching up to you one way or another. Karma, human nature, call it what you will.

I mention this because to reduce Saddam to the narrative: he chose tyranny --> committed X, Y, & Z --> personally responsible for X, Y, & Z --> X, Y, & Z will not happen again because he is dead does not satisfactorily address the times- the historical, political, and social settings- from which he arose.

You're absolutely correct, but people aren't entirely at the mercy of their environment and upbringing etc. To some extent, yes, but we all have to take some responsibility for our own actions too (and their possible negative outcomes, if our behaviour is motivated by nasty intentions). Certain actions will have certain outcomes in certain environments, and if your own behaviour isn't motivated by sincere intentions and is also morally dubious -- with horrible ramifications for innocent parties who are on the receiving end of your actions -- then you're initiating a chain of events which may well ultimately backfire on you.

MoorNam,

Precisely. This is the reason why I am against the death penalty.

By "the next life", I was referring to what will happen to him (or, as I said before, has possibly already happened to him) when his soul is "put on trial" by God. However, obviously I was also referring to his next life here in the material world, which is a notion some people here may or may not believe in, depending on their particular religious beliefs. And of course, some people from the Abrahamic faiths will believe in the concept of hellfire, damnation etc. I don't want to belabor the point because it feels corrosive and distasteful to excessively analyse and speculate about what will happen to another individual in such circumstances, especially as Saddam's fate is already sealed and is now in God's hands. Again, depending on one's religious ideas, "Saddam" as a distinct personality may not even exist any more.

Anyway, personally-speaking, I am against the death penalty for two reasons: Firstly, because I believe it's cowardly and inhumane to kill anyone who is unarmed and handcuffed (regardless of the circumstances), and of course state-sponsored executions fall into this scenario (you could even term them "state-sponsored lynchings"). Secondly, executions do now allow the prisoner the opportunity for remorse, reconciliation and redemption, even though this may take many years and possibly may not even happen at all.

However, some would say that life imprisonment is more cruel than executions are -- as such incarcerations with no hope of release are a form of indefinite, life-long psychological torture -- and I have to admit that there is some merit in this argument too. I'm fairly ambivalent about the whole thing and can see the pros and cons in both sides (ie. incarceration vs execution), but in the final analysis I have to say that I personally don't believe in the death penalty, even though there are certain crimes where I would indeed veer dangerously close to supporting it.

Dam(n) the world’s Sad
And be happy
Stay behind the Bush
And be happy
Be happy
That the world out there is irretrievably bad
Be happy
That the world out there is incorrigibly mad
Be happy
That you are not singed
By the burning wings
Of a distant desire
The gasoline fields of perpetual fire
Be happy that you are only sinned
Against and not really sinning
The proof of your piety is
That you are always ‘winning’

Agreed. There is no desi connection here.

Posting from India. It is incredible how much coverage there is here about Saddam's desi connection. He was politically a great friend of India, and quite supportive of the Indian diaspora/expatriate population in Iraq (unlike so many of his Arab brethren).

As much as I believe it was a tactical blunder to kill him and, as a political Indian, miss a man who was once a great counterweight to the mullahs and Taliban generals across the border, let's cut the hypocricy and outrage.

The reason he was executed, and executed on Eid, was because the Shi'ite ruling party wanted him dead. And spare me the outrage because its not the first time brown men kill other brown men, nor the first time someone in an Arab country was killed on Eid, nor the first time an Arab head of state was executed (see Prince Faisal II of Iraq) and its certainly not the first time there has been a public execution. Saddam was a butcher and a b*stard and whatever your view on the Iraq war or the death penalty, no one should be sad to see him go.

Um, yesterday was the start of the Sunni Eid. In Iraq, the Shia Eid starts two days later (goes back to politicking). Since this was a very sectarian decision, it makes sense that the Shia who dominate the current Iraqi govt would choose the start of the Sunni Eid to stick it to the Sunnis as it were.

Thanks, SP, I hit the button without reading my post, and had meant propose/initiate, not condone, but you straightened me out either way. I bet the US mikitary didn't want to have custody of him for very long in the interim either. This is truly a diabolical manipulation of peeps/pops.

I certainly see a strong element of racism in the manner and timing of this. I can't imagine any Muslim person condoning the timing of this execution.

Are you telling me that other Muslim executions don't happen on Eid. Are you telling me that Saddam could in any way be considered a man worthy of the Muslim fate, Let's be happy the fat Bastard is gone. Let's be sad at the sheet incompetence of the American invasion of Iraq. But lets not be hypocritical about something that's very much in the ordinary course.

And as a supplicant to the great Hashemite kingdoms of yore, I resent Tariq Ali's craven characterization of King Abdullah.

Hurry Hurry Hurry
no doubt no worry
the "fat" is ugly
a bit "bastardly"
His death gladdens
your hearts ohoi!
Hari Om namah Shivaai
Hari Om namah Shivaai

Hanging Saddam on the first day of Eid while George Bush slept (reported in the Hindustan Times) was and is unspeakable. I certainly see a strong element of racism in the manner and timing of this. I can't imagine any Muslim person condoning the timing of this execution.

I felt sad and outraged at the timing,

For all those saddened by the "racism" of the timing, the left-leaning NYTimes has some news that should make you feel happier:

U.S. Questioned Iraq on the Rush to Hang Hussein

Thanks LK. Glad to know I'm not the only person living in the West to be (inexplicably) upset about this. Red Snapper said it best - no matter what your opinion this, you'll feel morally grubby.

There is something politely cowardly! Something definitely communal! The responses are simply frightening.

Panini, anyone who has a different opinion than you either frightens you or depresses you. I personally can't believe that Saddam Hussein's death has inspired you to write no less than three poems about it! Here, watch this, you'll feel better.

Yehi to problem hai, bhai mere! Your training in the Universities of the US of A has endowed you with a supremely confident and self-righteous air to misread the other. Go back and see for yourself. The three poems are not about Saddam Hussain's death but about the desi responses - self-serving pussilanimy - to the event.

but about the desi responses - self-serving pussilanimy - to the event.

Whereas your response appears to be gibberish. Your point is what exactly?

Why, you want some education in language now? You cannot stop the likes of Hari abusing the "fat" - and it is not just an exception. The Desi-yankees have internalized this callous attitude where their own faults appear to them as naturally ordained virtues. The problem with you is you are neither here nor there.

The responses are simply frightening.

but about the desi responses - self-serving pussilanimy - to the event.

The Desi-yankees have internalized this callous attitude where their own faults appear to them as naturally ordained virtues

Pan Pot:

The majority of responses expressed various degrees of sadness and revulsion to the execution, war, and occupation. Now I can see how you could view my response is frightening (pro-war), cowardly (not serving), and self-serving (I own XOM and HAL), but what exactly is your objection to the majority?

WTF?