Not for the first time...

U.S. News and World Report

Commentary

Measure for Measure

By Fouad Ajami

January 15, 2007

There was mayhem at the gallows, and there was justice at the gallows. Saddam Hussein had divided Iraqis and Arabs-and others-while he lived, and he was to do so again on the day of his execution. In the best of worlds, Saddam's executioners would have been "clinical" about the thing and subdued, and they would have given the event the dignity it deserved. But this was a despot who had cut a swath of terror through the land, and the prime minister who had come to power from the Shiite underground was determined to bring the matter of Saddam Hussein to a fitting end. It wasn't pretty, that spectacle of execution, and there should have been no cellphone video recording of the deed, but the truth at the heart of what played out in Saddam's old military intelligence headquarters was plain and simple justice and retribution. Men are not angels, and the dictator reaped what he had sown.

Not for the first time... and I trust not the last Fouad Ajami has it spot on.