Reply #20: One of my concerns

[H2O Man]

is that his execution will be another fuse that helps set off the powder keg in the Middle East. I have read where people write that he was not a good Muslim, and that militant Islamists have long hated him. And the logical conclusion is that because of this, his death will not be viewed as a big deal. Yet we all know that logic is often trumped by the emotional tides of war, and that what makes sense from outside of the picture frame has little relationship to what happens within.

I do not believe in the death penalty. I think the power Saddam had -- which in large part was fed by the republicans from the Reagan-Bush era -- has long since left him. He is a bad person, and I do not deny the hatred many Iraqis feel for him is just, and the contempt that many DUers feel for him is justified. But I wonder if in death he will regain some of the power he used to have.