In the same week that we lost Gerald Ford to natural causes, Saddam Hussien was hanged by his own people. An interesting contrast if you will, Ford buried with full honors, with six days of observance and thousands of well wishers. Flags will be flown at half mast and the stock markets paused in reverence of the former President.
Saddam on the other hand, was pulled out of a spider hole, given a Nuremberg styled trial and hanged in disgrace. His country danced around his broken body in celebration.
"Now, he is in the garbage of history," said Jawad Abdul-Aziz, who lost
his father, three brothers and 22 cousins in the reprisal killings that
followed a botched 1982 assassination attempt against Saddam in the
Shiite town of Dujail.
"Now all the victims' families will be happy because Saddam got his
just sentence," said Hamza, who lives in Diwaniyah, a Shiite town 80
miles south of Baghdad. The timing of the deaths of these two former leaders may be a coincidence, but the contrast is illustrative of why going into Iraq was right.
Ali Hamza, a 30-year-old university professor, said he went outside to
shoot his gun into the air after he learned of Saddam's death.
