Sitting around waiting for a lynching was a f**king morbid way to spend the evening. But for some reason I was compelled to do it. Me and CNN.
The media reports that Bush had no such compulsion.
The Decider slept through it, just like it was a hurricane or something.
God, I hope next year is better, but with this one going out with a lynching, or the human race at its vilest, it doesn't exactly look promising. The sight of all those humans doing the jubilant dance of revenge was just one more depressing sign from the universe that we are a sick species.
I need to find a funny video to cheer this blog up.
Josh Marshall and Juan Cole have some memorable thoughts on the lynching; excerpts follow.
Josh Marshall:
Try to dress this up as an Iraqi trial and it doesn't come close to cutting it -- the Iraqis only take possession of him for the final act, sort of like the Church always left execution itself to the 'secular arm'. Try pretending it's a war crimes trial but it's just more of the pretend mumbojumbo that makes this out to be World War IX or whatever number it is they're up to now.
These jokers are being dragged kicking and screaming to the realization that the whole thing's a mess and that they're going to be remembered for it -- defined by it -- for decades and centuries. But before we go, we can hang Saddam. Quite a bit of this was about the president's issues with his dad and the hang-ups he had about finishing Saddam off -- so before we go, we can hang the guy as some big cosmic 'So There!'
This is what we're reduced to, what the president has reduced us to. This is the best we can do. Hang Saddam Hussein because there's nothing else this president can get right.
Juan Cole:
The body of Saddam, as it swung from the gallows at 6 a.m. Saturday Baghdad time, cast an ominous shadow over Iraq. The execution provoked intense questions about whether his trial was fair and about what the fallout will be. One thing is certain: The trial and execution of Saddam were about revenge, not justice. Instead of promoting national reconciliation, this act of revenge helped Saddam portray himself one last time as a symbol of Sunni Arab resistance, and became one more incitement to sectarian warfare.
Saddam Hussein was tried under the shadow of a foreign military occupation, by a government full of his personal enemies. The first judge, an ethnic Kurd, resigned because of government interference in the trial; the judge who took his place was also Kurdish and had grievances against the accused. Three of Saddam's defense lawyers were shot down in cold blood. The surviving members of his defense team went on strike to protest the lack of protection afforded them. The court then appointed new lawyers who had no expertise in international law. Most of the witnesses against Saddam gave hearsay evidence. The trial ground slowly but certainly toward the inevitable death verdict.
Gruesome graphic via Fox News and they have a video too.
Lynching Saddam Hussein News Politics New Way Forward Iraq War Bush Baghdad Execution United States Death Penalty America