I don’t have that much to say about Saddam’s execution. For longer treatments, go to Majikthise and Pandagon. I’ll just note two things.
1. The trial was a sham. Just because some conservatives believe that any human rights organization that doesn’t share their views on the I/P conflict is worthless doesn’t make it so. Up until the 1960s, Western leftists were supportive of Israel, and even brushed off some of its crimes because it was a socialist state founded by an oppressed minority. But it takes intellectual bankruptcy to say MLK was not a real civil rightist because he supported Zionism. If you have an on-point refutation of Human Rights Watch’s report, you don’t have to appeal to ad hominem arguments. If you don’t, you should look into the possibility that HRW is right.
2. That said, pretending the Iraqis didn’t want that result misses the mark. Some Sunni allies of Saddam regret that he’s gone. The rest of Sunni Iraq, as well as the Shi’a majority and Kurdish Iraq, wanted him dead all along. The whole “Execute the dictator because there’s nothing else to do” is based on a tiny kernel of cynical truth, surrounded by a lot of projection of the Western left’s attitudes on the Iraqi populace.
Abstract Nonsense 
The news services were full of it today. Even the venerable BBC got caught in the tide. The reporting was bizarre and macabre. His trial was a circus and his hanging was likewise.
The question remains: When will Cheney, Rumsfeld, Blair et al be hanged for their crimes against humanity. After all between them they have murdered more humans than Madd Sadd could ever dream of.
When Pinochet rises from the dead to be executed.
Re Bushbaptist
Hafaz Assad, the laet and unlamented dictator of Syria, probably exceeds all of the above in terms of beastliness. He killed 20,000 people in the city of Hama over a period of a few days.
SLC: No dispute there but that does not devalue the murders of the above-mentioned men. According to conservative estimates anything from 400,000 to 800,000 just in Iraq alone. Caused by Georgie’s little excursion. The massive bombing of Fallugah, Tirkrit, and so on are.
Why didn’t you kidnap Pinochet when he was alive? After all like to do that with impunity elsewhere. Just could have picked him up on the street and whisked him US.
What about Marcos? He killed about 80,000 of his own and you gave him exile in Hawaii – the list is long.
When are you going to invade Zimbabwe? Mugabe is any bit as bad as Sadd was. Liberate them and bring democracy there.
If you give a murderer a gun and shelter you would find yourself in serious doodoo as an accessory. Why should Bush et al excape punishment??
[…] Meanwhile, Alon Levy has a brief but insightful commentary on Hussein’s show trial and execution: Pretending the Iraqis didn’t want that result misses the mark. Some Sunni allies of Saddam regret that he’s gone. The rest of Sunni Iraq, as well as the Shi’a majority and Kurdish Iraq, wanted him dead all along. […]
A commentary from a left wing Israeli newspaper in the following link.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/808349.html
silver cigarette case Saddam Hussein | Abstract Nonsense