Saddam Hussein, 1937-2006

Saddam Hussein has been hanged by the neck until dead. Hussein was a murderous tyrant, and it's nice to see that the new Iraq has moved on from all that. Well, at least after this one last murder. Because every peaceful government needs to start by murdering the previous regime.

One witness claimed that Hussein remained defiant to the end, arguing with guards and mocking Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr moments before he was hanged. Iraqi Judge Munir Haddad, said that Hussein appeared "totally oblivious to what was going on around him. I was very surprised. He was not afraid of death."

Another witness, Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, claimed that "He was a broken man. He was afraid. You could see fear in his face."

I have a feeling that both are true. I don't care how arrogant a man Saddam was, when facing death like that, you'd have to be an idiot not to be afraid. Death is the one thing that we are all equally helpless to fight. As death himself put it in Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, you may be a king or a little street sweeper, but sooner or later you'll meet the reaper. At his execution, Saddam was simply a man being put to death, and I for one can not celebrate that.