Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many

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In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.

On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Mr. Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.

“No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed,” President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published Friday and distributed by the official Egyptian news agency. “They turned him into a martyr.”

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“Suddenly we forgot that he was a dictator and that he killed thousands of people,” said Roula Haddad, 33, a Lebanese Christian. “All our hatred for him suddenly turned into sympathy, sympathy with someone who was treated unjustly by an occupation force and its collaborators.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/06/world/middleeast/06arabs.html?hp&ex=1168059600&en=4818277bb06677ae&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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1. How incompetent do you have to be to turn Saddam Hussein into Nathan Hale?

One of the reasons there are so many conspiracy theories about the Bush administration is probably because it's hard to believe they can be this stupid without actually trying.

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2. Was it ever going to be any other way?

One more easy prediction the MSM is surprised by.