Agreed. I won't link to or promote that video in any way. The mass-murdering despot is dead and his many victims presumably partying in heaven. No more really needs to be said.

Except, perhaps, a one-word message to the Mullahs.

"Next."

Hmmmm, if we can do better than the Romans in that period, we would be doing well indeed.

I don't think much of the circus over Saddam's execution, but one of the reasons for the war, as I understand them, was to make an example of what happens to dictators, situated as Mr. Saddam was, who mess with Uncle Sam. In that sense Saddam's almost ritual humiliation served the same purpose as placing King Decebalus's head on a pike in the Forum Romanum. The King, it should be noted, had been let off fairly lightly in his own "First Gulf War." If Saddam, or King Decebalus had possessed any sense -- they'd have taken a lesson from their previous encounters with the Empires, and behaved accordingly.

I don't know how we can be "better than that." We have more gadgets, and computers that enable us to write these things, but I don't think science and education makes us different or otherwise improves us. Like the Romans, like it or not, we're an Empire.

I definitely agree. I also saw one analysis of the video (find link in my post 'Good Reads for New Year', at bottom) which says that the whole thing is essentially a Shi'a snuff film, based on what is actually said in the audio. Could this video actually cause more sectarian violence, rather than subdue the Sunnis with evidence that Saddam was really dead?

Re the comment on "more sectarian violence," I wonder if it can get much worse as regards sectarian violence ? The Sunnis, by not working with the Americans, to induce the Kurds and the Shiites to give them some place in a post Saddam Iraq in which the Kurds and Shiites are the majority -- and the Sunnis deprived of their traditional means of control -- appear to have opted for communal suicide by betting all on a strategy of driving the Americans out. I don't know what more hanging Saddam can do to inflame them.

Some of the Sunnis are coming around. The dynamic in Ramadi and Anbar is changing.

CY:

I'm very pleased with the moderation of your comments.

Most are ignoring this aspect, but as a practical matter, given the heavy conspiracy theory nature of Arab psyche, the hanging HAD TO BE SHOWN WIDELY to demonstrate conclusively that Saddam was in fact dead and not spirited away or escaped somehow.

As it is, many are claiming a British/Israel/Space Alien, etc conspiracy to actually execute him, but few are denying the deed was done. That alone is a noteworthy minor accomplishment.

Sorry, but I have to agree with PA. The "Arab Street" needs to SEE him executed, not to mention certain Arab and non-Arab dictators.

"Shi'a snuff film" is exactly right. Those executioners weren't government soldiers or policemen, it was a Sadr Death Squad, sanctioned by the President of Iraq. One of the witnesses praying to Sadr was Maliki's own National Security Advisor!

CORRECTION: Maliki's NSA actually mentions Sadr's father, Mohammed Sadr, not Muqtada. See AP, see how easy it is to print a correction?