All executions are about revenge. Justice is something different from a body swinging from a gallows, gouts of blood spewing from a severed head, or a bullet-riddled body with its hands bound behind its back.

The US condemns its enemies for broadcasting grisly executions, but one can find Saddam Hussein's body displayed in every media imaginable all over "legitimate" US websites.

Hussein's execution simply provides those who hate the US--whether or not they supported or detested the Irqi dictator--another reason to oppose American policies with all the blind vehemence with which the US pursues them.

The blind idiocy of the current administration continues to amaze, confound, and disgust me.

So the world is going to pore over the remains of the evil dictator devil incarnate Saddam Hussein, eh? How long is that going to keep the moral hypocrites happy and create a smokescreen for the other, more 'global' miscreant governments to pull off some geopolitical chicanery.

Saddam Hussein was evil, no doubt. But as a threat to world peace and stability, he was a joke, a non-starter. The matter of Saddam was purely for the the Iraqi people and, to a lesser extent, the Kuwaitis - the latter territory being in dispute at the time. In fact the only time Saddam really came to the USA's attention and their jewish 51st state in the middle east was when the rich Kuwaiti oil fields were under threat. What threat? Iraq would still have sold the stuff on the world market.

Once again the 'West' have created a smoke and mirror situation to divert our attenion whilst another illusion is enacted.

The world has not rid itself of any threat. The USA will go bargain basement shopping for another tinpot dictator to protect it's 'interests' (how many knew of the Khmer Rouge's supporter? to name but one of many. A fair weather friend, the USA), and it's they who frighten me along with the heads of North Korea, Israel, China - none of whom The USA and my own UK have the stomach to whip into line, threat-wise and human rights-wise - along with the hibernating Russian bear and the fledgling lesser nuclear powers.

Saddam is done. It was a matter for the Iraqi people only. Let it rest and let's hope a protacted post mortem of the matter doesn't deflect us from the real threats that may/will turn up ON OUR doorstep. Shut up before you start as****e!!.

White agnostic Englshman.

So the world is going to pore over the remains of the evil dictator devil incarnate Saddam Hussein, eh? How long is that going to keep the moral hypocrites happy and create a smokescreen for the other, more 'global' miscreant governments to pull off some geopolitical chicanery.

Saddam Hussein was evil, no doubt. But as a threat to world peace and stability, he was a joke, a non-starter. The matter of Saddam was purely for the the Iraqi people and, to a lesser extent, the Kuwaitis - the latter territory being in dispute at the time. In fact the only time Saddam really came to the USA's attention and their jewish 51st state in the middle east was when the rich Kuwaiti oil fields were under threat. What threat? Iraq would still have sold the stuff on the world market.

Once again the 'West' have created a smoke and mirror situation to divert our attenion whilst another illusion is enacted.

The world has not rid itself of any threat. The USA will go bargain basement shopping for another tinpot dictator to protect it's 'interests' (how many knew of the Khmer Rouge's supporter? to name but one of many. A fair weather friend, the USA), and it's they who frighten me along with the heads of North Korea, Israel, China - none of whom The USA and my own UK have the stomach to whip into line, threat-wise and human rights-wise - along with the hibernating Russian bear and the fledgling lesser nuclear powers.

Saddam is done. It was a matter for the Iraqi people only. Let it rest and let's hope a protacted post mortem of the matter doesn't deflect us from the real threats that may/will turn up ON OUR doorstep. Shut up before you start as****e!!.

White agnostic Englshman.

Plastic Ono Man,

I don't see the parallel between Saddam and Stalin. The US did not invade the USSR and have a chance to put Stalin on trial for his crimes against humanity. So, Stalin was never put into a situation where he had the chance to reveal incriminating information about whatever support the US may have given him. Saddam was in such a situation, and the Bush administration needed to shut him up. The US did a lot of bad stuff in the middle east in the 1970's and 1980's in the Middle EAst and beyond -- supporting very unsavory characters, instituting regime change through covert operations, and all sorts of other very illegal things. No one wants these things to be revealed, or at least revealed as little as possible. More importantly, I think you fail to see that people like GHW Bush, Rumsfeld, and Cheney have a direct and PERSONAL interest in Saddam not ever saying another word. Their reputations, their whole images could have been toppled by what he could have revealed. So, Rumsfeld, Cheney & co. all had ample motivation to execute him as soon as possble.

The US supported Saddam against Iran. It is really not clear to me what made Iran such a horrible enemy in 1980. What the US feared the most was not the spread of very conservative Islamic republics, like Iran became, but the spread of hostility to the US, and the spread of citizens toppling their western-backed rulers. The Shah of Iran was put in place by the CIA in the 1950's. He was a totally corrupt oil whore that sold himself to the west. He was not democratically elected, and the people hated him, but the US supported him because he was friendly to US interests. Just like they did with Saddam. Just like we're going with Saudi Arabia. The US doesn't give one shit that Saudi Arabia may be the most repressive country in the world, as long as its leaders are friendly to western interests. So all this talk of caring about human rights and democracy is pretty much beyond contempt. It's outright two-faced lies, and everyone knows it.

Saddam's regime is a classic case of unintended consequences/blowback. And the way we repay him for all the services he did for the US is we execute him for things that we didn't mind him doing when he was working for us. It's the ultimate hypocrisy.