on executing one ot the worst of the worst...

from the diaries of the tennessee dude...

so i watched the video - one time and one time only - disgusting, saddening, disturbing, and thought provoking...

let's get this part out of the way - saddam hussein was a tyrant and murderer of the worst sort, no doubt about that...only holocaust deniers might argue otherwise and well...

but i ask - does such a spectacle with jeering, chanting, and chaos distance the rest of humanity from the actions of saddam?...my opinion should be clear - absolutely not...

the vatican's official newspaper decried the images of saddam's hanging as a "spectacle", violating human rights and harming efforts to promote reconciliation in iraq...italy, a rotating member of the um security council, announced a diplomatic push at the un for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty, following a wave of denunciations across europe over the execution...

supporters of moqtada al-sadr, the radical shiite cleric and militia leader, taunted saddam as he stood on the gallows...this type of testosterone driven action seems to have been in the minority as far as i can investigate...

arab commentators have condemned the execution nearly across the board...granted, many of them live in sunni muslim dominated states...but their anger seems to be focused upon the (intentional?) timing of saddam's killing - on the eve of the muslim feast of the sacrifice (ironic?)...but apparently sunni muslims start this holiday a day prior to shiites so saddam was actually killed during and nor before the holiday began...

many argue that the timing merely exacerbates the sectarian divisions within iraq making the political situation even more unstable...

i think that one interviewee got it right..."saddam had become irrelevent - this only increases his martyr potential,"...

great! i think i'll close with and stick by human rights watch's richard dicker on this one, "The test of a government's commitment to human rights is measured by the way it treats its worst offenders. History will judge these actions harshly."

no matter, the death penalty remains a torn and tattered policy tool...it's own death is coming to meet its makers...

one only hopes...peace out <3

Mama's in the fact'ry
She ain't got no shoes
Daddy's in the alley
He's lookin' for the fuse
I'm in the streets
With the tombstone blues