Goodby Saddam

From The Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 -- Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was found guilty by a special tribunal Sunday of crimes against humanity for the torture and execution of more than 100 people from a small town north of Baghdad 24 years ago. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

This is good news. He may not be the worst person to ever have lived but he is in the ballpark.

I hope they hang him soon. I think that his death will take the wind out of the sails of a big part of the "insurgency"

I wonder what the Iraqi people think of this?

Celebratory gunfire rang out over Baghdad as jubilant Iraqis expressed their happiness with the outcome by racing to rooftops, front yards and windows to fire into the air. National television showed smiling Iraqis dancing in the streets of cities around the country, including in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which technically was under an all-day curfew.

About what I thought.

What exactly was this trial about?

Hussein was convicted of ordering the killings of 148 men and boys from the town of Dujail, about 35 miles north of Baghdad, following a failed assassination attempt against him there in 1982. Hussein's presidential convoy was passing through the town when it was shot at. In response, he and other top Iraqi officials at the time order the round-up of hundreds of people, and the town's buildings were razed and its orchards destroyed.

Ten of the people executed were boys ranging in ages from 11 to 17 at the time of the incident. The government held them in jail until they were 18, then hanged them.

Saddam's supporters had this to say:

Hussein's defense attorneys warned that a guilty verdict and sentence of death would sparked renewed attacks against U.S. and other coalition forces in Iraq and lead to a wider civil war. They also accused the Bush administration and the Shiite-dominated government of Nouri al-Maliki of colluding to scheduled the verdict so it came two days before crucial mid-term elections, hoping to give Bush's Republican party an electoral boost. Iraqi and U.S. officials have denied the charge.

Isn't it interesting how Saddam Hussein's defense team as well as Osama bin Laden and his terrorist cronies all seem to be reading off the list of Democrat talking points? Let's spend some time thinking about this before we enter that voting booth. Do we really want people running the country who seem to be making the provision of aid and comfort to the enemy the centerpiece of their party?