As we mourn the passsing of a former President the Iraqi people celebrate the death of former President Saddam Hussein who was executed before sunrise on Saturday.
His execution which came 56 days after a conviction, marked a quarter-century of remorseless brutality that killed countless thousands and led Iraq into disastrous wars against the United States and Iran.
In Baghdad’s Shiite enclave of Sadr City, hundreds of people danced in the streets while others fired guns in the air to celebrate his death.
One Iraqi, 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 commented, “Now, he is in the garbage of history.”
Bush commented that while the death of Saddam will not end violence in Iraq “it marks the end of a difficult year for the Iraqi people and for our troops.”
And that is reason to celebrate.
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