This has always been W's forté and can reasonably be assumed to have been the purpose of the Iraq war. The stories of Bush keeping Saddam Hussein's sidearm as a trophy are sickening.

The whole thing was a joke, from the "executioners" who looked right out of central casting (complete with fake leather jackets, hoods, etc.), to the fact that the executioners were Shiites and were praising Muqtada al Sadr as they hung him, to the fact that it happened on a Muslim holy day, to the fact that someone managed to smuggle in a camera phone and took video, etc. etc. etc. What a complete, utter farce, and it "only" cost us 3,000 troops (so far) and a half trillion dollars. Yipee!

I wonder if Saddam Hussein got the joke.

Bush Baaaa-aaaaaad!

The stories of Bush keeping Saddam Hussein's sidearm as a trophy are sickening.

I would have too. In a case right over the fireplace.

"I would have too."

No, you likely would have been smart enough not to reveal that you had lied to congress and the public, spent half a trillion dollars of the public's money, wrecked a country (and perhaps ultimately a whole region), increased the threat of terrorism around the world, and wasted hundreds of thousands of lives just to settle a family score.

"[...] to the fact that it happened on a Muslim holy day [...]"

I'm not sure how reality matched the plans, but I heard shortly before the event that it was to happen before dawn specifically to avoid holding an execution on a holy day.

Why they couldn't have waited for all the other prosecutions to finish is beyond me, though. Apparently some folks were a lot less interested in the truth coming out than they were in swift revenge.

At least we're giving everyone a fair deal at our prison camp in Cuba.

The way I understood it, the holy day is (or begins on) Sunday for Shiites, Saturday for Sunnis. Since Saddam was a Sunni, and the Shiites in Iraq were ostensibly repressed under his rule, there was an unusually attractive opportunity to send him off on the holiday he and his sect celebrate without offending the religious sensibilities of Shiites. Who could have this much fun without capital punishment?

Man and you consider yourself a Catholic, a religious person?

"Why they couldn't have waited for all the other prosecutions to finish is beyond me, though. Apparently some folks were a lot less interested in the truth coming out than they were in swift revenge."

Alan: all is not lost. They can try him posthumously, dig him up, and hang him again.

The war was a terrible idea made even worse by terrible management. But it is also true that the noose is a perfectly suitable terminus for bad leaders. Excepting rarities like Saddam Hussein and Nicolae Ceaucescu, most of the political monsters of history have taken extreme measures to die of causes other than the vengeful grip of their victims. Any other sort of death will do.

If leaders are ever justified in sacrificing the lives of their subjects and citizens for the good of their country, the people ought to be prepared to sacrifice their leaders as well. The heads of civilized countries are just as capable of hubristic destruction but, beyond losing an election or being treated rudely by comedians, they are largely protected from the consequences of their foolishness and their violence.

F*** Saddam and hang him again. I am proud as a peacock and so would your Father be! Hillary, Obama, Edwards, bring 'em on they are all dead meat!!!

Jimmy: Happy New Year to you. But I've got to ask you to please watch your language, as we have some readers who are very young and too immature to be reading that sort of thing. One of them in on the Portland City Council.