In With a Bang, Out With a Whimper: The Death of Saddam Hussein

"HE was a broken man. You could see the fear in his face." These were the words of a witness to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's death on the gallows yesterday.

Well, it's about time he felt some.

Fret not, o gentle reader...his fear did not last long:

Shiite politician Sami al-Askari witnessed the event and said the process of Saddam's execution took 25 minutes but once he was dropped through a trap door his death was quick.

"One of the guards pulled a lever and he dropped half a metre into a trapdoor. We heard his neck snap instantly and we even saw a small amount of blood around the rope, they left him hanging for around 10 minutes before a doctor confirmed his death and they untied him and placed him in a white body bag," Mr Askari said.

And there you have it. Fifteen years too late, if you ask me, but there it is.

Saddam Hussein has been executed by his own countrymen, for crimes too numerous to mention. Not much more to say, really.

Oh, this won't fix everything, of course. There's still a lot of work to do over there.

But this is a step that's needed taking for a long time, a milestone in the process of Iraq getting itself back on its feet.

Still...there's just no pleasing some people. I wonder how long it'll take for this to get "revised" beyond recognition.

No matter. The Iraqi people know what he was, and they know why this needed to happen. Those of us in America who have been there know these things, too.

And no amount of hand-wringing, whining, and self-delusion from those who refuse to accept that someone they don't like is capable of good works in the world will change this.