Yea, I suppose my flippant title is off base, but I have a hard time feeling any sorry for the death of the man.  After all, he looked at the person responsible every day when he shaved.

Himself.

One of the arguments I used to get into with some liberal friends was that of accountability.  While this is not a partisan issue, it does seem that a lot of liberals look to excuse behavior with mitigation.  Conservatives generally fall back on personal responsibility, do the crime do the time.

I am sure we will hear this asked many times in the near future:  Was Saddam a monster, or some kind of victim?  In fact, it has already started.

On the TV tonight I heard stories about how harsh his upraising and how that may have made him what he was.

Fah.  He made choices like the rest of us.  My choices didn't make me wealthy at the expense of others, and didn't cause the death of hundreds of thousands.  His did.

Consider this list of the choices he made.  A few excerpts:

• He launched a war against Iran that led to the deaths of about a million people.
• He invaded Kuwait, killed scores of its royal family and raped the country.
• He conducted the Anfal campaign against the Kurds, a brutal campaign against civilians that saw the use of chemical weapons against defenseless women and children.
• He worked with terrorists Abu Abbas and Abu Nidal, two of the most notorious terrorists of the 20th century, who had American blood on their hands.He worked with terrorists Abu Abbas and Abu Nidal, two of the most notorious terrorists of the 20th century, who had American blood on their hands.

Ramsey Clark called him "a victim of sectarian persecution" as if all the murders he committed or ordered committed were just a game of politics that went sour.  Sorry, but no.  They were not just political sectarian disagreements, they were narcisistic brutality.

I read another interesting twist in the NY Times.  While discussing the difficulty in finding the official hangman (way too many volunteers) they said about the hanging process:

The victims are led up a set of steel stairs to a platform, about 15 feet above the ground, and nooses fashioned from one-and-a-quarter-inch-thick hemp ropes are slipped over their necks.

Excuse me?  The victims?  No, the victims were herded into pits and shot, or were raped by Saddam's sons, or gassed by his soldiers.

Saddam is only a victim of his own brutality and his aggression.  He is a victim of his own creation.

After all, consider what it would have taken for him to live.

• Stop invading other countries
• Treat his people fairly
• Stop financing suicide bombers
• Stop lobbing missiles at Israel
• Stop bribing the UN for oil for food payments and weapons sales
• Destroy the weapons and provide transparent inspections in accordance with the surrender agreement he signed.
• Be Benevolent
• Be a parent and don't raise your sons to be brutal thugs

Yada Yada ad naseum.

I would be remiss to ignore HuffPo, where, as the Radio Equalizer notes, they have lost it.  Go look for yourself there and at the Kos, I don't have the stomach for it tonight.

As for his trial, most sensible people see him as a person who was so blatantly evil a trial was unnecessary.  He cold have been summarily executed, and no one would have shed a tear.

But a trial he had, because no one wanted to be accused of being preemptive.  We had to provide due process and justice.

But then people insisted on throwing American Constitutional protections into a trial in another country.  His lawyers still claim he did not get a fair trial because it did not meet some hazy international standards.

It didn't have to.  It had to meet Iraqi standards.  When we helped Iraq form a Government we enabled them to take that responsibility.

And they did.  Sad that their fledgling government so fearlessly handles what we here dither over for decades.

And so it is done.

Now, they need to see this as it is, an end to a brutal era.  Saddam and his sons are gone.  Ding Dong the witch is dead.

The healing can begin, justice was served.  Most of Iraq is rejoicing.  What does that tell you?

His remaining family needs to face the evil he was.  Deal with it.  I don't care if he tucked his daughters in nightly, he did it with bloody hands.

And the lawyers and peaceniks need to go home, and find a new victim du jour.

This one is a no brainer.  He was evil.  He deserved the fate he chose. 

He sits in God's judgment now.

Good riddance.

Others talking about this: Michelle Malkin and everyone else: 

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