Saddam was eliminated before he could give his account of the killing of Kurds and Iranians by the use of chemical ordnance.

Teams of investigators have combed Iraq in search of the incriminating evidence that connects Daddy Bush's toxic friends to Saddam's toxic friends.

Saddam may be gone, but the search goes on.

Adios Saddam. A true friend of the CIA.

I take it the author has never walked the streets of Singapore. I have no problem with people being against capital punishment but to try and back up the arguement that it does not deter crime is as silly as saying spanking does not bring a child in line.

Mirko,
You seem to like to ignore all the research that does indicate Capital punishment does deter crime.

Rather than simply comparing murder rates between different places, which can have many different factors affecting the murder rate, it is less problematic (although still with some problems inherent in any social research) to compare what happens to countries and states when they change from using to not using capital punishment. For instance...
The murder rate in the US doubled from 5.1 to 10.2 between 1965 and 1980 as capital punishment was abolished. As capital punishment was reintroduced, this murder rate fell to 5.7 in 1999.

There is plenty of other support for the deterrent effect of capital punishment.

Also of note is there is more than one argument for capital punishment.

Please try to be honest
please try and be honest.

Just as spanking may encourage children not to be naughty, some statistics do show that capital punishment may reduce crime rates. However, this is no reason to conclude that spanking, or capital punishment, are reasonable options. Children always respond better to explanation and reason. Their parents are better people for choosing not to smack. Societies that choose not to have capital punishment are similarly more enlightened than those that choose to kill.

Saddam's hanging just shows how barbaric we have become. We're supposed to be opposed to capital punishment, yet we have the US and Australia supporting this horrific metering out of justice.

What next for Australia - will our esteemed leader - suggest that execution be reintroduced back into Australia "in the National Interest".

The whole scenario is sickening - Saddam should have been tried in front of the World where at least some of his crimes would be made public and give a sense of closure to other nations whose people he has slaughtered.

Mr Bagaric

Was Saddam Hussein hung? I have no evidence.

Was he hanged? It appears so.

Was that convenient for the current US Government Executive Branch?
I have little doubt of that.

If you can argue moral necessity for torture, then surely you can argue moral necessity for destroying evidence.

Perhaps, in these post-Orwellian times, we can safeguard against moral catastrophe in kinder ways than than cutting out tongues or breaking necks.

Have a read of "City of Light" by Michael Doane (1992) for a look at the fields where human witness can be harvested.

By the way, what is a "moral catastrophe"?