Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality and in its enormity, but is serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment.
William J. Brennan


If there was ever a man worthy of being executed publicly, certain Hussein falls into that category. However, this does not make it right. All that was accomplished yesterday was another death in a war that has claimed far too many deaths as it is. Odds are, more people will be killed in revenge for Hussein's death, then more deaths in revenge for those deaths. Being put in jail, Hussein was no longer a threat, he had become a cartoon, a pathetic figure, ranting and screaming.

What moral obligation is served by swinging him by a thread and snapping his neck? Near as I can see, the world isn't any safer. The only purpose served was revenge, sating a blood lust.

Stories abound about the behaviour of those who witnessed the execution, stories of dancing around the corpse. Tell me this was the behaviour of a democracy. I defy you to find three presidents of the united states elected in the twentieth century who are not worthy of hanging by the neck until dead. Clinton? Bombing medical warehouses, Kennedy? He escalated the war in Vietnam, despite the revisions of history to claim he didn't. Roosevelt? His directives led to the development of the atomic bomb.

Canadian prime ministers are guilty of crimes as well, the nature of ours is less malevolent though due to our lack of a budget.

The absurdity of what happened on December 29 will cost a price that will be paid for years, in blood and death. Hussein needed to be kept in jail, humiliated, turned into a clown. Now he can grow in stature in the fuzzy reflection of history.