Well, this will get 2007 off to a good start

[dc]

It would be difficult to argue that the world is not a better place for no longer having Saddam Hussein in it, but it is probably a much worse place for his having been executed. The death penalty is barbaric in any case, but when applied to someone like Saddam Hussein it is simply stupid, too, risking creating a martyr of a monster. All that would be true if he had had something remotely resembling a fair trial, which he did not. To make matters even worse, the execution was carried out on a date which could have been designed to inflame sectarian tension in Iraq. I am going to stop here, it is too... there should be a word for a combination of profoundly depressing and thoroughly infuriating. Much more (and much more eloquent) comment can be found elsewhere. As often is the case, the LJs of nhw and autopope are good starting points.