On the hanging of Saddam

Like many others, I first saw Saddam's hanging on CNN. My first thought was, why is there no sound? My second was,"why don't they show him swinging"? The first question was answered for me when I joined millions of others in webland in searching for more video. The sound was edited because of the taunting that was being done. I was concerned about not seeing him swing, since that would have left open the question of whether he really was hung. I am surprised the world hasn't heard from conspiracy theory crackpots about this one, but it will come, oh yes, it will come.

Now that a little time has passed, and the reactions are rolling in, I can only shake my head in resignation.

I have heard that Saddam is being viewed as a martyr.Come again with that? Yes, that is right, many people are now viewing him as a martyr who faced his death with dignity and pride. I will agree that this travesty of human reproduction was better behaved than the crowd around him, but why should they have behaved any differently? Secondly, how does his composure make him a martyr?

To my first question, some would say they should have behaved more solemnly because a man was being killed. I could not disagree more. This so called man was responsible for the deaths of thousands of his own countrymen! If it had gone my way, his execution would have been done in the middle of Baghdad, tied to a post, and the very citizens he terrorized would have pummeled him to death with small rocks being thrown at him. This was a brutal and vile subhuman excuse for a man, and no death could have equaled the pain he caused to others. At least with the taunting, he went to his death with the exact reasons for his death ringing in his ears to his very last moment.

As to my second question, why is Saddam being viewed as a martyr? I cannot believe that any but those with the lowest respect for human life and dignity, and the witless automatons that follow them, could brand Saddam as a martyr. I suspect in many cases, such as with the governments of nations who proclaim and uphold this view, that it is only with an eye to yet another way to sway public opinion against the U.S. . What they downplay is the fact that Saddam was tried, and executed, in Iraq, by Iraqi citizens, in an Iraqi court appointed by its democratically elected government. Once again, the method of execution, and the behaviour of the witnesses to it have no bearing on how Saddam should be viewed.

Saddam will soon be no more than a vile stain on the history of the world, a stain who was eradicated way too late, but was eradicated nonetheless. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Thank you Iraq, for almost doing it Pauls Way.