Saddam is DEAD

Sing praise and glory! The world is a little less evil.

AP: Saddam Hussein executed for war crimes---

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Clutching a Quran and refusing a hood, Saddam Hussein went to the gallows before sunrise Saturday, executed by vengeful countrymen after a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.

A little over-dramatic, wouldn't you say? I would say "executed by righteous countrymen, who gave Saddam the rights he denied countless thousands." But, then, I'm not a member of the MSM.

It was a grim end for the 69-year-old leader who had vexed three U.S. presidents. Despite his ouster, Washington, its allies and the new Iraqi leaders remain mired in a fight to quell a stubborn insurgency by Saddam loyalists and a vicious sectarian conflict.

Really, it WASN'T a GRIM end for the 69-year-old FORMER DICTATOR. He oversaw the TRULY GRIM ends of thousands of his countrymen. Saddam's execution was relatively easy, painless, and bloodless, compared to the methods he used to torture and execute Iraqis.

After that part of the article, it took the writers a rather long time to actually discuss what happened at the execution. Funny that, I thought news writers focused on the Who, What, When, Where, and Why, and that those questions were answered towards the very beginning of the articles. Apparently, they've dispensed with that in order to focus on how many American military have died in the month and various disturbances and deaths in Iraq, rather than the focus of the article (at least according to the headline: Saddam's Execution).

I'm glad to read this, but think it ought to have been later in the article, after the details of Saddam's death:

Ali Hamza, a 30-year-old university professor, said he went outside to shoot his gun into the air after he heard of Saddam's death.

"Now all the victims' families will be happy because Saddam got his just sentence," said Hamza, who lives in Diwaniyah, a Shiite town 80 miles south of Baghdad.

"We are looking for a new page of history despite the tragedy of the past," said Saif Ibrahim, a 26-year-old Baghdad resident.

And then, after more rambling, we get to the information most important to the article:

Sami al-Askari, the political adviser of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, told The Associated Press that Saddam briefly struggled when he was taken from his cell in an American military prison but was composed in his last moments.

He said Saddam was clad completely in black, with a jacket, trousers, hat and shoes, rather than prison garb.

Shortly before the execution, Saddam's hat was removed and Saddam was asked if he wanted to say something, al-Askari said.

"No I don't want to," al-Askari, who was present at the execution, quoted Saddam as saying. Saddam repeated a prayer after a Sunni Muslim cleric who was present.

"Saddam later was taken to the gallows and refused to have his head covered with a hood," al-Askari said. "Before the rope was put around his neck, Saddam shouted: 'God is great. The nation will be victorious and Palestine is Arab.'"

Saddam was executed at a former military intelligence headquarters in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah, al-Askari said. The neighborhood is home to the Iraqi capital's most important Shiite shine, the Imam Kazim shrine.

No remorse. What a pathetic excuse for a human being. Saddam served his master, Satan, until the end.

Photographs and video footage were taken, al-Rubaie said.

"He did not ask for anything. He was carrying a Quran and said: 'I want this Quran to be given to this person,' a man he called Bander," he said. Al-Rubaie said he did not know who Bander was.

"Saddam was treated with respect when he was alive and after his death," al-Rubaie said. "Saddam's execution was 100 percent Iraqi and the American side did not interfere."

Respect Saddam showed no one.

Human Rights Watch criticized the execution, calling Saddam's trial "deeply flawed."

"Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can't justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program.

The hanging of Saddam, who was ruthless in ordering executions of his opponents, will keep other Iraqis from pursuing justice against the ousted leader.

If only all those people Saddam had killed were given the same defense by Human Rights Watch. Perhaps they would still be alive . . . Actually, they would still be dead. Saddam Hussein had NO respect for life. He was fairly tried by a democratic process and righteously sentenced to death and executed. Of course his actions justified the death penalty. His life was all about executing cruel and inhuman punishments on innocent Iraqis. JUSTICE HAS BEEN SERVED. And now, Saddam must face God and really pay for his crimes against humanity and God.

Many people in Iraq's Shiite majority were eager to see the execution of a man whose Sunni Arab-dominated regime oppressed them and Kurds.

Before the hanging, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Friday called Saddam's execution "God's gift to Iraqis."

"Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam," said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Amen. That's what happens when you are evil and wicked. And Saddam was.

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