Can I kick it? No, you can't.

Just Swing, Baby

It looks like Saddam Hussein is going to die in the next day or so. The thing that interests me mainly, is the fact that I really don't care. I've covered the death penalty before, saying that even though I know it isn't a deterrent to anything, it really goes a ways in satisfying the old bloodlust.

And that's where we are with Saddam. I'm pretty sure there aren't any wannabe dictators out there thinking, "Well, I suppose I'll just keep my accounting job instead of staging a bloody coup, leading to a reign of terror. I mean, if they can bring down Saddam, no one is safe!"

If you can't kill this guy, who can we kill?

This is an open-and-shut case, after all. Sometimes the evidence is very strong. Hell, we're beyond evidence here, there is proof of this man's crimes everywhere. The fact that they even bothered with a trial is remarkable.

Still, this final act of justice, retribution, revenge, or whatever you'd prefer to call it hardly justifies the cost of this misadventure in Iraq. It is debatable whether or not Iraq was better off under Saddam than it is now. There is no doubt in my mind that the United States was better off with him in charge, and that's the beginning and end of the equation for me.

I suppose that makes me a subscriber to the Realist philosophy espoused by war criminals like Henry Kissinger, of all people. What an awful thing to realize.

But back here in the real world, the United States has gotten bogged down in Iraq, and this weekend at some point, Saddam Hussein will be quite literally at the end of his rope.

I wonder who George W. Bush will hold up as a bogeyman in the new year? Saddam was a primo choice, even for those of us whose father had not been targeted for assassination.

I suppose that's another reason to not mourn the passing of the Butcher of Baghdad. Bush is going to have to spend a little more time living in the real world, a country where people have about a thousand larger problems than a personal grudge held by a president. He won't be able to blame the economy, his administration's incompetence, the condition of education in the US, the corruption of his party, or anything on Saddam Hussein ever again. That particular card has been played.

I seem to recall that it was an ace of spades.

The only questions that remain for me where the execution is concerned is how quickly the video will make it to youtube, and if I'll watch it.

*click*

Friday, December 29, 2006