Who built the gallows, had them ready, when? (Carpentry, pulley, hinging and knotting expertise)

Ah, the irony. Saddam of all people had the gallows built, years ago, to execute his own people. It was in the basement of the building where his political enemies "disappeared."

For those wondering about the religious argument for capital punishment, the Commandment says, "You shall not murder, ..." not "You shall not kill..."

Murder is the unjust taking of an innocent life. Capital punishment is the just taking of a guilty life, like payment for the crime committed.

I'm really tired of constantly hearing that the U.S., via Rumsfeld, supplied Saddam with his poison gas. It's a lie, plain and simple.

Here's a report from the Nov. 9, 2005, Washington Post:

An investigation of poison gas attacks carried out by Saddam Hussein's regime two decades ago has led Dutch authorities to Maryland, where for more than 18 months they have been quietly gathering evidence about an international businessman's dealings with a now-defunct chemical manufacturer.

Their target is Frans Van Anraat, a Dutch citizen scheduled to stand trial in the Netherlands within weeks on charges of genocide and war crimes. Van Anraat, 63, is accused of supplying the Iraqi regime with thiodiglycol, a key ingredient in the mustard gas used to poison thousands of Iranians and ethnic Kurds in northern Iraq.

Van Anraat's thiodiglycol was manufactured in Baltimore by the chemical company Alcolac Inc., which, U.S. authorities say, effectively supplied both sides during the Iran-Iraq war. Alcolac pleaded guilty in 1989 to knowingly violating export laws in the case of a shipment of thiodiglycol that ultimately went to Iran.

A Dutch arms merchant, working with a U.S. firm, helped supply the chemicals to both sides in the Iraq/Iran war. The U.S. firm was then prosecuted by the U.S. government, and the arms merchant is being prosecuted by the Dutch authorities.

Please, let's put this lie to rest.

I find the distinction between translated verbs in various versions of the Ten Commandments to be a depressing rationalization for execution.

If it's all about Christ's message, then it's not about hangings, or gassings, or any of it. Including war.

One can find anything in a sacred text. This is what grieves me about religions. People will argue verbiage for the sake of debate, when what is needed is a lightbulb moment in the chest, not the brain.

THINKING doesn't cure vengeance ("which is mine, sayeth the Lord," but never mind...). SEMANTIC points don't cure violence, vengeance, or viciousness.

All that can is empathy. Compassion. Love.

(Be as stern as you like with murderers and their enablers. I got no problem with a privilege-free existence in a bare cell. It is, as a previous poster noted, a greater punishment.)

Just don't ritualistically kill and rationalize it. It's bloodlust, not ethical punishment, and if we don't evolve past it we're sliding off the globe.

Um. So wait. An American company, through a Dutch arms dealer, sold chemical weapons to BOTH sides of the war? Oh. Ok. That clears it all up. Gosh, so sorry "lefties" lied about how LIMITED the US's involvement was in only claiming IRAQ received our largess against the Geneva Convention. We intentionally forgot about Iran. Sorry. So Sorry.

We all know "lefties" are evil and only want to destroy America, dear America, which only the truly gun-toting can appreciate because we all know the world is a terrifying place. Kindly don't notice, folks, that the reason it's terrifying is it's full of people like Mr. Bush and, say, my neighbor down the street who has a basement stocked for when "they come for us." Yes, the hyper-aggressive, they're only protecting us from...um...themselves.

But wait. That's right. "Lefties" take joy in destroying the freedom to speak, they thrill to watch discourse drowned out by big money noise. And the entire, what is it now, 60% of the nation who think G.W. Bush is a lying crackpot, they're all out to bring old Columbia down. Kill'em now before they come for your guns.

It's all clear now. Anything a "lefty" says must be a lie because they disagree with you, or each other, or God, or Allah. Because they ask questions and seek real truth, instead of official truth. Because they're not lock-step nod-headed boobs looking to belong to something, anything, as long as it has all the guns and the money and can clearly identify Who The Real Problem Is Over There. Oh, you don't get any, though. But hang around anyway, because you'll get to see "lefties" politically destroyed through lies and innuendo, and dissenters beaten and brown people disappeared. There's plenty of fun, and later you can shoot your guns in the air.

This isn't "leftist," it's "realist," as in "based in reality" as in take your lying right-wing propoganda somewhere they'll buy it, like, say, nowhere. And the "left" isn't against free speech. It's against free lies.

Hussein was our boy in the war against the Ayahtolla. Both parties were complicit, but Ray-gun, Bush I, and Bush II get the lions share of blame for the hellish mess we've made of the Middle East.

I'm amazed at how many facets there are to the execution of Saddam Hussein. On the grandest scale, it symbolizes the entire history of American involvement in Iraq. Sleazy. Cheap. Barbaric.

It also represents the complete loss of credibility of the Bush regime. The long decline began with the "Mission Accomplished" stunt in May, 2003. Bush in his flight suit, and now Saddam in his oversized noose. Such theater Shakespeare could only dream of.

Saddam indeed became an entertainment figure on U.S. television, with his courtroom disruptions making for better drama than the networks could come up with in their boring offerings. Far more entertaining than Bush, I might add.

On another level, Saddam's hanging points out the absurdity and malevolence of capital punishment. The hooded executioners taunting him until the end, the clumsiness of the procedure, and the macabre atmosphere spoke volumes of the immorality of the practice.

At its best, capital punishment is still premeditated murder. Someone has to be hired to deliberately kill another human being. The message this gives to society is that it is okay to kill other people as long as you have "justification." Of course, justification is in the mind of the beholder.

And on yet another level, the execution sets a precedent for punishment of political leaders. If killing one country's president is acceptable, why not others? A Pandora's box may have been opened. Once you have warmed people to the practice, they might develop a taste for more. I believe life without parole at hard labor would be the appropriate punishment for the Bush crime family, but the tide of history might be moving in another direction.

And finally, Saddam's execution may bring about many unintended consequences. Many writers, including Robert Fisk, Eric Margolis, and Robert Parry, are lamenting that the Bush gang wanted Saddam silenced, lest he reveal what he knows about American complicity in the gassing of the Kurds and Iranians, the help he was given in developing weapons of mass destruction, and various other crimes. The hanging was so crudely and hastily carried out that the revulsion it has generated may lead to a full airing of the secrets the Bush gang wants to keep hidden.

One thing can be said for sure. Killing Saddam is no cause for celebration at the White House.