he world’s liberal governments and mainstream media are crying foul over the execution of Saddam Hussein. Most governments simply kneejerked from the perspective of being anti-death penalty regardless. Some used the “not on the Sunni holy day” excuse to circumvent the principled discussion about the legitimacy of capital punishment. The discussion didn’t get any easier when a cell-phone video started circulating that revealed that Shia militia’s were more or less in charge at the execution, with guards taunting the condemned man with references to Shia terrorist leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

Of course, in kneejerk-liberal Europe, as well as in some quarters in the US, people responded to the hanging as basically a US affair. Saddam’s execution, they claimed, was just another instance of US colonialism enforcing the same Cheney/Rumsfeld gung-ho morals on the poor Iraqi people. Nobody believes that it is even conceivable that Saddam was tried and convicted fair and square before he was led to the gallows.

So, what do I think about the hanging? No marks for performance here, but I have no doubt that Hussein got what he deserved. The crimes of which he was accused were proven, and confirmed in appeal. Don’t give me any of that nonsense that the Baghdad Butcher didn’t qualify to have his neck lengthened. Tried, convicted, executed. So there.