Meting out punishment is no easy task. Just ask the newly-installed criminal justice system in Iraq. Its decision last night to execute Saddam Hussein was a hugely symbolic one, even more so than the toppling of his statue almost four years ago. But if it's closure that the new Iraqi entity is looking for, they'll have to try a bit harder. Thousands of hardcore Ba'athist followers will not have to jump through the same circus hoops erected by the US government and will certainly not have a noose tied around their necks.

Deciding not to trial Saddam for all of his crimes against humanity can only leave uncertainty where answers were once expected. Capital punishment is being shown for what it really is, a terribly ineffective and shallow means of righting wrongs and exacting revenge. Like Bin Laden before him, they've let a terrorist escape once again.

But it's the fillip that Bush needs in what can only be described as a terribly smelly anus horribilis for neocons all over the world desperately in need of this colonic clear out.

tags:saddam

Published by Colm.