It’s hard to believe the easily offended are still ranting that the poor monster Saddam had to endure a little verbal taunting at his hanging. For perspective, recall how dignified the last transfer of power occurred in Iraq:
In 1963, a group of Baathist army officers tortured and assassinated General Qassim. This was done on Iraqi television. They also mutilated many of Qassim’s devotees and showed their bodies (in close up) on the nightly news for more than one night. Saddam, hearing the news, quickly rushed back to Iraq to become involved in the revolution. And involved, he was, as both an interrogator and torturer at the infamous “Palace of the End”, in the basement of the former palace of King Faisal.
This is Iraq, not Switzerland. By their standards his hanging was dignified. He wasn’t tortured in public and his body didn’t get dragged around Tikrit and Fallujah behind a pickup, after all.
And not for the faint of heart, a roundup of execution techniques by Prof. Scrub.
Yes, but nevertheless Krauthammer has a good point. A golden opportunity was lost in hanging him just as the trial for the Kurdish genocide was beginning. A full accounting for his crimes might also have bolstered the case for the US invasion. Not Switzerland, to be sure, but you can’t deny that Saddam was the most dignified person in those videos. That is a tragic outcome: the killingest man in the world gets a big image upgrade from the famous spider-hole street person, to the dapper chap in court with his spiffy white shirt and excellent quaff, to the dignified man taking the fall when all round him looked like mere vengeful gangsters chanting their love for a Shiite militia thug. Ugh!
I didn’t watch the drop. Anybody else chicken out?
It really makes me wonder about the left alll over the world when I hear them say how harshly Saddam Hussien was “mistreated” by his executioners; never having lived for one second under his reign of terror. These, the ever tolerant and ever understanding left (if truly anyone could) obviously have no idea the depth of feeling that these people harbour and express because of that.
After the way he treated others, in the name of the “greater good of Iraq”, he deserved everything he got. They told him to to go to hell? Good, that is where he belongs. May this miserable P.O.S. burn forever.
By the way, I preferred Prof. Scrub’s “snake pit” technique. Why sully yourself with laying hands on a depraved butcher like Saddamn Hussien? Let those that understand him best deal with him
Only someone who has endured a loved one fed into a shredder or gassed with cyanide etc. has the right to express sympathy for Saddam. To do otherwise is to trivialize the suffering of his victims.
It is in the interest of the civilized world not to make a martyr out of Saddam. In this regard the execution of this butcher may have fallen a bit short and, as Me No Dhimmi 6:29 points out, may have occurred prematurely.
At any rate Saddam has now taken his case to a higher court, where, as some might say, it will be “sorted out”.
Me No Dhimmi, I chickened out too. With pleasure.
But, interestingly, two twenty-plus year old godsons and I were talking about this video at a New Year’s Day party at the house of one of them: I said I’d been warned–big red letters–that the video I could access had the “full Monty”. I said I’d passed. Almost before the words were out of my mouth, the two of them were off to the nearest computer so the one who’d not seen it yet could. Boys! (And they’re lovely ones too.)
Re the pre drop video: I WAS impressed by Hussein’s dignified demeanour. TOO bad the goons gave the looney left ammunition. However, like Abu Ghraib, what a total lack of proportion. Actually, Abu Ghraib was the scene of excruciating tortures, infinitely worse that the verbal taunts Hussein received. But the lefties are ignorant fools and blithely ignore such facts.
Wow. What a moron. David Olive’s piece is unreadable and the dumbass is one of the last few journo-idiots that is still using the Lancet’s long discredited civilian casualty numbers.
Saddam was insulted verbally at the gallows, get over it, he has. He’s lucky he wasn’t executed by paper shredder. And, what’s America got to do with the decorum of his final moments?
Now, what would have made a more disturbing video would have been turning him over in his underwear to the surviving parents of gassed Kurdish children.
Lefties and their misplaced sensitivities make me sick.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6239199.stm
Good activists never give up. Now, they’re calling for mercy in the hanging of his (Saddam) two henchmen.
Can someone please explain why so many people have this terror of carrying out the death penalty on mass murderers who are guilty beyond any doubt.
If someone wishes to state that every human life is precious, they haven’t been paying attention.
I have no pity for Saddam. He was executed for crimes of which he was no doubt guilty; in essence justice was carried out. That is not the issue. Krauthammer is correct. Justice must also be seen to be done and Saddam’s execution was farcical. He was only found guilty of murdering Shiites and many others were murdered but they saw no justice. The hanging was on a Sunni holy day not a Shiite one and those present who carried out the execution shouted out the name of al Sadr who runs a rouge Shia army in the South. The execution came off as a lynching by Shiites.
Fighting between Shia and Sunni was bad enough, stirring up eye for an eye violence just makes things worse.
Can someone please explain why so many people have this terror of carrying out the death penalty on mass murderers who are guilty beyond any doubt.
I’ll take a stab at that. Because in the muddled squeamish world of lefty moral equivalences:
One domestic murder = life sentence
Mafia contract murder = life sentence
Garden variety serial killer = life sentence
Hitler, 6 million murders = life sentence
Stalin, 30 million murders = life sentence
Bottomline: quantity not an issue, so you might as well, if you are so inclined, murder in big numbers. The left will be there to ensure your cot and 3 hots.
Where was the moaning from the left when Saddam was killing people? Where were the street signs?
Perhaps the next time I see a rally against dictators, non-democratic states, etc. is when I’ll take these lefties more seriously.
Not for the death penalty myself, but I’m not shedding any tears for Saddam – it would be hypocritical.
Mansur says it was a good hanging. …-
Just deserts for tyrant
Toronto Sun ^ | 1/6/07 | Salim Mansur
As Saddam Hussein fell through the trap door at the end of a hangman’s noose his death was deservingly just, and ironically merciful.
Saddam Hussein, for instance, escaped the fate of Nuri as-Said, the prime minister to Iraq’s kings, summarily shot after being captured while attempting to flee the capital disguised as a woman after the overthrow of the monarchy in July 1958. Nuri as-Said’s body was disinterred, mutilated, burned and dragged through the streets of Baghdad before being disposed.
But once Saddam was pulled out of a spider’s hole in December 2003 by American soldiers, the tyrant knew fate had dealt him a not unkindly hand in sparing him the sort of savage death to which he had consigned countless numbers of Iraqis.
The hanging of Saddam Hussein after a trial by an Iraqi court — let us contemptuously dismiss all the nonsense of victor’s justice administered under questionable arrangements — was a fitting end to a horrendously evil period in the history of a country over-burdened with a cruel past.
In the land between two rivers — Mesopotamia — tyranny has been the norm for the longest while, and tyrants have sought to exceed each other in the provision of harsh rule. The pattern was set by the brutal murder of the prophet of Islam’s grandson, Husayn, in 680 and his severed head carried to the presence of the Caliph in Damascus.
The sectarian mayhem that has gripped Iraq since Saddam Hussein’s fall has a history reaching back to that horrible deed of beheading Husayn by the Caliph’s army. This history could be kept buried only by the continuing brutality of tyrants — Saddam being in a category of his own — and at a price ever-mounting paid by Iraqis. …-
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1763375/posts
Say goodnight, Saddam.
Goodnight, Saddam. …-
Final thought for the day
George Jonas in an article which appeared today pointed out that in some cases “guilt” is so certain that no trial should be permitted.
Such was the case with Saddam.
There has never been any doubt at all regarding the crimes he committed so why the trial?
I suppose it was to satisfy the “leftie mob” in western countries who scream for fair play and then break their own rules. If so it was entirely “wrong headed”. Nobody would have questioned the Russians dragging Hitler out of his hole, tieing him to a post and turning him into mincemeat without benefit of trial.
To this day it is an unproven fact that Hitler committed suicide in his bunker (we only have the Russian word for that) and I’m certain that every document released by Russia from “officers on scene” would reflect that he killed himself.
I don’t believe them.
I say that because Hitler was nothing if not a coward (he was a thug and “thugs” are all cowards).
I cannot picture him taking that way out. More likely he was found by very “pissed off” Russian troops, dragged out, shot and then burned to get rid of the evidence.
No matter — nobody cares anymore.
Watching all the whining going on for the past week regarding Saddam I stand by something I said on this site months (if not years) ago. The fine young officer that discovered Saddam in his bolthole “many moons ago” should have simply dropped a grenade down the hole and screamed “Welcome to hell, Saddam.”
It would have saved the world a lot of bullshit and the end result would have been exactly the same.
…-
jack’s newswatch
“his body didn’t get dragged around Tikrit and Fallujah behind a pickup, after all.”
Whoa, just had a flashback to the “Iliad”, man!
As an American, I have to say, we should have “done the job” when we found him. Would have been soooo easy. Although we *really* should have done the job back in 1991, instead of heeding the stupid Saudis, who didn’t want uppity Shia in Iraq giving *their* Shia any ideas.
That’s the main reason why I think Churchill and Roosevelt (then Truman) allowed the Soviets to surge through to capture Berlin – well, a) after Stalingrad, they were ready for what Berlin would be, but b) the Sovs were willing to kill Hitler and his staff, which the western Allies just wouldn’t do. Of course, Hitler beat the Soviets to it . . .
“Hitler, 6 million murders = life sentence
Stalin, 30 million murders = life sentence
Bottomline: quantity not an issue, so you might as well, if you are so inclined, murder in big numbers. The left will be there to ensure your cot and 3 hots.”
For a bit of perspective during the Nuremberg trials it was the republicans (led by Senator Taft who went on to become their presidential candidate) who were lobbying to spare their Nazi pals the noose not democrats.
Any country can do anything it wants, no matter how barbaric, and the world yawns (see post below). If Israel or the United States doesn’t handle the Korans for its terrorist prisoners properly, they are charged with crimes against humanity. The double standards are beyond belief.
And in Rome. they weep. From infidel bloggers:
The Colosseum in Rome was illuminated evening as part of Italy’s campaign for a global moratorium on the death penalty following the bungled hanging of Saddam Hussein.
Following an initiative by the Italian capital’s left-wing mayor Walter Veltroni, the arches of the world-famous 2,000-year-old Roman era stadium were lit up as night fell.
In attendance were members of Italy’s libertarian Radical Party, whose 76-year-old leader Marco Pannella began a hunger strike on December 26 in support of the moratorium.
Italian politicians were unanimous in their revulsion over Saddam’s execution, with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi calling it a “political and historic error.”
“This is Iraq, not Switzerland. By their standards his hanging was dignified. He wasn’t tortured in public and his body didn’t get dragged around Tikrit and Fallujah behind a pickup, after all.”
This is why I fear the Iraq war cannot be won. In this day and age, it’s too difficult for Western democracies to do what it takes(ie. using ruthless tactics) to put down indigenous insurgencies (Phillipines in 1905-6, the Indian sepoy rebellion, Louis Riel). The Iraqi govt. looks weak precisely because it hasn’t dragged Mr. Hussein’s body thru the streets of Tikrit.
In Afghanistan, however, we have our proxies (the Northern Alliance) who can do some of the dirtier work for us. And Guantanamo is evidence that the US is not so spineless after all.
Boo hoo. I guess the lefties want everyone to feel good about themselves before they answer for their crimes. We should’ve let him go in peace – what a crock. Like he gave peace and mercy to any of his victims. I’m afraid that I would have put up with a lot worse treatment of that man before objecting. This is where we go wrong – rights for the guilty perpetrators of crime and no rights for innocent victims of crime.
You’d wish an indepth look on executions would spell “penalty” right…
Irwin Daisy: Was there a protest at the Roman Colosseum??? Did they run out of lions? As someone said previously, it is a pity he could have been only hung once.
Oh well, it could have been worse. He could have been tried in a Canadian court and been free after fifteen years of a “life” sentence.
I wonder if the leftists would consider Daniel Pearl’s ‘execution’ to be dignified.
Great post Kate, ‘nail on the head’ and all that.
The ‘Bleeding Hearts’ are at the root of a lot of our problems today. Crime, Drugs, Porn, child molestation, terrorism, activism for the sake of activism …. The perpetrators know that the ‘soft-on-crimers’ are too queasy too stand up for justice. Hence, more victims, sometimes innocent children, like in Saddam’s Iraq.
Does anyone know how a Criminology Dept *thinks* at our Universities ?? Is anyone here involed with one ??, .. can explain what their goals are.
I didn’t watch the drop. Anybody else chicken out?
I’m squeamish and chickened out. Bugger deserved it though.
I’m not squeamish, just couldn’t be bothered. But then again I don’t stand around an accident after I see the scene is in capable hands.
“Italian politicians were unanimous in their revulsion over Saddam’s execution, with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi calling it a “political and historic error.”
I assume Canadians will all assemble in the newly ventilated BC stadium to protest the hanging of Benito Mussolini. Political and historic error indeed.
Whassamattaforyou.
RE: many others were murdered but they saw no justice…
It is my understanding that under Iraqi law the other murder trials against Saddam can and will continue. He does not need to be there or to testify and if he is found guilty his victims will have the legal right to pursue compensation from his estate, if they find the money.
Lets, for a few moments, consider that Saddam got hanged by the laws he made.
It was Iraq – not US, not Canada etc law. Don’t like it … call 1-800- imm-oron.
note the other methods linked are from antiquity.
wtf do we have to scoff at the wilful breach of execution protocol.
you people are like a bunch of sand box brats “well he started it”
deliberately aggravating a touchy explosive situation instead of giving no excuse to the agitators to retaliate.
a godam free-for-all. is that what you want? bloody barbaric. you havent learned ANYTHING from this.
do we have to reinstate capital punishment for stealing a horse? that satisfy you ?? 20 years for five fingering a loaf of bread maybe ??
I can not understand why the left gets so worked up about the death of a monster, but there is nary a peep out of them over this.
In Iran, Nazanin Fatehi was sentenced to death a year ago, on 3 January 2006, after admitting having stabbed to death one of three men who tried to rape her and a 16-year-old relative. She was 17 at the time Thankfully with the help of former Miss Canada, Nazanin Afshin-Jam she will be given a new trial. Further from the story:
If she had allowed the men to rape her and her niece, the girls would have been subjected to 100 lashes under Iranian laws on chastity. If they had been married at the time they were raped they would likely have been found guilty of adultery and sentenced to death by stoning. Link
First – I’ve been on a quick road trip and that was Kevin Jaeger’s post – ( and a good one).
Second – Saddam was nearing his 70th birthday, (March, I think) after which Iraqi law states he could no longer be executed. So, waiting for the outcome of the Kurdish trials would have resulted in a life-long stay of execution.
There was some bleedingheart jerk who said that the death penalty makes us murderers what a idiot i guess he cant get much through his walnut sized brain HEY JERK FACE CAPITAL PUNISHEMENT IS FINAL AND I SUPPOSE WHEN THEY WERE HANING ALL THOSE WAR CRINIMALS AFTER WW II YOU AND YOUR FELLOW IDIOTS WOULD BE THERE LIGHTING YOUR CANDLES FOR ALL THE TOJOS AND HIMLERS
I’m shocked that no one has made a “well hung” joke yet!
[Excuse me, I posted the following on ‘More Trouble for France.’ mea culpa.]
Saddam was an alien force.
Some world leaders would like the security of being able to categorize Saddam as a war criminal, and thereby render him into a category that can be understood by the mind. I think their weakness and threat to us is the desire to feel comfortable in a category that preempts action that would destroy the threat.
They don’t know what to do with a Saddam, because since they don’t know what he was, they don’t know what they are.
This is all very opaque.
What was Saddam?
Saddam wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t psychotic, schizophrenic, manic-depressive… etc. He was not disassociated, he was rational, he was capable of cognition. I was flabbergasted when I heard that the man loved romance novels. And even more flabbergasted to find out he actually wrote two of them.
Saddam wasn’t a criminal. It isn’t possible for punishment to fit the crime with Saddam.
If it were possible to quantify the entire aggregate of fear and pain that Saddam caused, the amount of it could only be seen as god-like. It might be possible to reproduce the pain and fear that he gave one, two, or possibly three people, and that would be it. If you could somehow continually resurrect Saddam to inflict enough punishment through enough resurrections so that the punishment would fit the crime, a department would have to be arranged devising and dealing out punishments until it was time for our sun to go out.
What Saddam did defies any category of the human mind to comprehend. Did he enjoy what he did? I believe his two sons did. What he completely indifferent to what he did? How does a human being sleep at night doing what he did? Answer: a human being can’t. Saddam wasn’t a human being.
In my life I’ve seen and done and been around some tough things. One buddy was a Green Beret interrogator in VietNam. When it was necessary, information was extracted, and I won’t go beyond that. (My friend quit the day he hit a prisoner in the stomach with a .45, and the prisoner had TB. The prisoner spit blood all over him, and that was it for him as a special ops interrogator.) So I’ve seen tough things and known of even tougher, but none of it transcended the capacity of a human being to dish out punishment.
Saddam defies the category of cruelty. It’s beyond every descriptive term that we could dredge up to try to define his behavior.
We’ve dismissed the language of religion. We say Saddam was evil, but evil has ontological ramifications. Our psychological-sociological world has no categories for ontological evil. I’ve read that some leaders found Saddam to be a charming dinner companion, with a sense of humor and a twinkle in his eye.
But if Saddam was like Hitler, he was not like Himmler. Himmler was the ultimate true believer, so maybe Saddam was somewhat like Hitler.
A lot of leaders in the world want to be able to psychologically manage the enormity of horror that Saddam is responsible for by finding some kind of category within international history and jurisprudence to make them feel as if at least the image of Saddam is manageable.
They are weak. It is a weakness in the most fundamental sense to try to find a supportable and manageable image to fit their reflective capacity and excuse them from trying to come to grips with the real menace that Saddam was.
It is a weakness and a sickness that allows his kind of horror to gain power on this earth.
In the end, they don’t know what to do with a Saddam, because they don’t know what a Saddam is. And they don’t know, because they don’t know what they are. And the horror that Saddam wrought makes them understand that they are too small to fathom that kind of horror, and they don’t know who or what they are. They don’t know who they are, they don’t know where they came from, and they don’t know where they are going when they die. And they cling to their categories and rationlizations.
I just wish they had delivered him to the kurds
Just hundreds of thousands?? He really should have got death by a thousand cuts.
“He believes that the manner of the execution was completely wrong, but that should not lead us to forget the crimes that Saddam Hussein committed, including the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis,” a spokeswoman for Blair’s office said.
The new idiot at the UN held a moral position by calling for an end to further executions.
He doensn’t have the wit, wisdom or gumption, to realise that not executing them is a morally worse thing to do.
At 11:26 PM above Mr. Robert Bollocks wrote, “You people are like a bunch of sand box brats [when you say] ‘well he started it'”. This is an unusual criticism comming from one who wrote in his defense here, on Friday last, “Remember […] all who peer at the exchange – you started it”. Students of this phenomenon can find additional information here: http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/005281.html#c127807 – my apologies to those who aren’t students of this phenomenon.
Vitruvius wins. lol
It was a good hanging if for no other reason than to upset moonbats like bollix.
Some more good hangings coming up that will be sure to send the moonbats to new heights of outrage.
Probably good for the shares in glass cleaning products, what with all the spittle on computer screens.
Wimpy Canadian, did you happen to see streaming video that was posted at HotAir.com when the new UN Sec-General was asked about Saddam’s execution?
I just checked HotAir.com and unfortunately the video is no longer available. I watched it several times though and in it, he strongly implied that
1 Saddam got what was coming to him and
2 capital punishment was an issue for each sovereign nation to decide for itself, preferably under the guidelines of international humanitarian law.
I was actually pleasantly surprised to hear a UN Sec-Gen actually saying something that was clear and not-double talk or vacuous PC platitudes; made intellectual and moral sense. (Not that the bar is that high, after Butros-Ghali and Annan.)
Hey, Saddam was just following the example of his hero – Mohammad.
I thought it was pretty humane in that they allowed him a long drop off a short rope vs picking him up by the neck with a crane located in the town square as per the normal procedure while he himself was in power.
Stupid liberals!
“Never Mind The Bollocks”
Saddam’s predecessors, some anyway, came to very sticky ends – e.g. torn apart by a mob, as Nuri es-Said was back in 1958. I remember thinking as I looked at the picture of his headless, armless, legless body, with the groin masked out, that Iraqi politics really wasn’t like Canadian politics.
Saddam’s trial and execution were handled well – he was presented with the charges against him, convincing evidence was given in the courtroom with Saddam and counsel present, and he was allowed to confront his accusers. He was not tortured, and a merciful means of execution was chosen. Not even the short drop, which amounts to strangulation – rather the long drop, where unconsciousness is instantaneous. The hanging was carried out properly: the rope was not too long (this results in the head coming off); nor was it too short (this is equivalent to the short drop, i.e. strangulation). Finally, his body was not molested before burial.
As for the interruption to his final prayer (actually, the Moslem declaration of faith): Saddam was not a man of God and his executioners probably regarded those words coming from Saddam’s mouth as blasphemy.
MSM mourns the loss of a story more than the people.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/01/07/hussein.trial.reut/index.html
I have no idea why they think they would need Saddam around to tell the story of the Kurdish massacres. They can do all the documentaries and news stories they want about it – it’s perfectly safe to travel around Kurdistan do all the interviews they want. It would be somewhat riskier trying to interview the old Baathists, admittedly, but with some risk that would be possible, too.
But they showed no interest in covering the evidence against Saddam in his trial, concentrating only on his grandstanding outbursts. I really don’t think they’d cover another trial against him any differently.
” Lets, for a few moments, consider that Saddam got hanged by the laws he made.
It was Iraq – not US, not Canada etc law…”
I totally agree ural 10:38. Iraq is not the west. The trial, however you see it, was conducted and he was found guilty. Now, how many times does someone have to be found guilty before they should be punished ? 10, 100, 1000+ ? Or when it has cost more money than is reasonable ? How much is that ? He was found guilty, sentenced and hanged. End of story. I think there are alot more problems going on in the area that we should be concerned about.
BTW, I did watch the cellphone video. Of other “Googled” videos of Iraq, this was the least disturbing. For those who said he was a distinguished man in the end, are you serious ?! I saw a man scared s***less realizing this was really, really the end. He prepared for the inevitable as I imagine anyone would…reliving sins and deeds and then calculating the odds.
heyo st vitus dance:
the difference regarding which camp ‘started it’ is no one so far has croaked from exchanges on this blog.
the sit’n in iraq doesnt need this kind of nya nya nya nya actions. helluva lot at stake in the ME, no need to botch the execution regardless of which side of the verdict one sits.
if you utterly absolutely insist on ‘tit-for-tat’ on the gallows then you *become* what you object to. period. and then begins the long journey into vendetta and blood hatred.
furthermore, regarding the age 70 thing, think of the psychological coup available if they went on with the additional trials past the magic number and strung him up anyway in light of the enormity of his crimes. a great opportunity missed to emphasis how much he deserved the death penalty.
not to be, the white house conducts the play up to the moment the curtain starts to drop and then its handed over to the locals.
anyway st vitus nice to see you ‘hang’ on every word I write.
Thank you for your considerate comment, Robert. Yes, I am serious: it was nearly free of aspersions (except for belittling my name), and pretty much stuck to the topic. I think you raise a number of valid points, some of which I agree with at least to some degree. As they have been discussed at length above and elsewhere, I won’t go into them again.
If I may offer an olive branch of peace, Robert, I have been “picking on” you (if that’s the correct phrase) on some of your comments because of your rhetoric, not your dialectics. I look forward to discussing with you and others your future thoughts, without the (in my opinion off-putting) gratuitous swipes you have developed a reputation for, and yet avoided in your previous comment.
Kate doesn’t like us to engage in “flame wars” here, and I don’t like them either. My decades of experience in this on-line conversation thingy has lead me to conclude that if one actually wants to make one’s point in a convincing matter, then one must apply a degree of civility to one’s presentation. That applies to all of us, including me, and I know I don’t always get it right.
It’s this legacy I have of observing this medium that ends up attracting me to these meta-comments that I have a reputation for making, which on the one hand I apologize for as pushing the rules of engagement. On the other hand, I get the general impression that the normative readers of SDA don’t find them to be too big a burden, as long as I keep them close to relevant, keep a lid on their frequency, and maintain an acceptable level of wit, which I will continue to attempt to do. After all, we’re not just doing this, we’re doing doing this.
Good night everyone, I wish you well. May our understanding continue to improve.
The problem with the execution was the sloppiness. It looked like the gallows were set up in the loft of an old store or something. The guards were completely undisciplined, taunting Hussein. It would have been harder on Hussein going to his death with his own thoughts and what the afterlife holds for him.
The fact someone got in there with and used a videophone says a lot about the hopes of ever organizing a modern justice system or disciplined military in Iraq. From the shakiness of the video, it was standing room only. This was an opportunity for Iraq to show that a death sentence is the ultimate punishment of the State, a thoughtful decision made through the judicial system. The way it was carried out shows Iraqis and the world that the militias are in control and you better back the correct militia.