Hussein To Hang

Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity on Sunday It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

My own commentary points out the problem here. Saddam Hussein was never going to get a trial with an impartial jury. Everyone knew what he had done. His use of poison gas on the Kurds. His forced relocation of Iraqi minorities. His suppression and killing of Iraqi Shi'ites. And many, many other crimes. They were well documented. And since the Islamic or Arabic society doesn't show much of a trend towards turning the other cheek, the verdict was never in doubt.

Ultimately, the trial was for show. It was to prove that Iraq had a democracy. To show its citizens how a trial should be conducted. How democracy worked. And the lessons weren't learned. It was an utter failure. Why? In part, because the outcome and the verdict weren't in doubt. I don't know how many judges and lawyers and their families were killed, kidnapped, tortured, and generally terrorized for this farce but it was unacceptable.

Since the truth was always known. Since Saddam's culpability was given. I always thought they should have run some form a truth commission as was done in South Africa. It could have allowed many Iraqis to come to terms with where their disappeared loved ones ended up. Then when it was all over, he could have taken a nasty fall down a flight of stairs and broken his neck. But that didn't happen.

So Saddam is to hang. I just hope the bastard has the kind of neck that won't break at the end of a noose. He'll just hang there, twitch, and slowly strangle to death.