Saddamination

I really don't know what to say about the death of Saddam Hussein, except that it's been a rough year for Don Rumsfeld, losing his job and his friend:



I guess what I have to say about it has already been said by this specialist:

U.S. troops cheered as news of Saddam's execution appeared on television at the mess hall at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad. But some soldiers expressed doubt that Saddam's death would be a significant turning point for Iraq.

"First it was weapons of mass destruction. Then when there were none, it was that we had to find Saddam. We did that, but then it was that we had to put him on trial," said Spc. Thomas Sheck, 25, who is on his second tour in Iraq. "So now, what will be the next story they tell us to keep us over here?"

It's important to note that, far from the swift administration of justice, this was an explicitly political act. The timing was generated with the full participation of the United States. The timing, in fact, was designed to rub Shiite power in the nose of the Sunnis:

The tribunal also had a unique sense of timing when choosing the day for Saddam's hanging. It was a slap in the face to Sunni Arabs. This weekend marks Eid al-Adha, the Holy Day of Sacrifice, on which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for God. Shiites celebrate it Sunday. Sunnis celebrate it Saturday –- and Iraqi law forbids executing the condemned on a major holiday. Hanging Saddam on Saturday was perceived by Sunni Arabs as the act of a Shiite government that had accepted the Shiite ritual calendar.

Saddam was a tyrants, and all tyrants who rule with brutality and targeted murder deserve to meet justice. But by doing it in this way, the US (let's not kid ourselves that this was solely the Iraqi's idea) managed the near-incredible feat of turning this horrible person into something of a martyr. Josh Marshall really had one of the quotes of the year in describing this:

This whole endeavor, from the very start, has been about taking tawdry, cheap acts and dressing them up in a papier-mache grandeur -- phony victory celebrations, ersatz democratization, reconstruction headed up by toadies, con artists and grifters. And this is no different. Hanging Saddam is easy. It's a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion. So this execution, ironically and pathetically, becomes a stand-in for the failures, incompetence and general betrayal of country on every other front that President Bush has brought us [...]

Marty Peretz, with some sort of projection, calls any attempt to rain on this parade "prissy and finicky." Myself, I just find it embarrassing. This is what we're reduced to, what the president has reduced us to. This is the best we can do. Hang Saddam Hussein because there's nothing else this president can get right.

At this point, I don't think anyone still believes that Saddam's corpse rests on a corner that we will turn to face victory. For an Administration that's out of options, save for surging more troops to their death, killing the former dictator represented at least something tangible that they can point to, a line in the State of the Union, an accomplishment they can tout. In actuality, it's just a way for Shiites to lord it over Sunnis in the country, an excuse for more horrible violence. It's a meaningless act in a country full of meaningless acts that end in death.

Oh yeah, and those of you looking for footage of his hanging on my site, the ones doing the Google searches that get you here?

Sickos.