i doubt i will ever again wake up in a country that has just executed it's former leader. but that is in fact what happened yesterday. as you know (since you couldn't avoid the news) saddam hussein's death sentence was carried out early saturday morning here in baghdad and now we are left to determine how iraq will move forward with the dictator a distant memory.
i wish i could tell you that the execution was not one of those items that would further drive the shia and sunni populations against each other but as more video of the execution becomes available we are learning that the executioners were in fact chanting praise to shia leaders while shouting that the dictator was going to hell. not that i disagree with their assessment of the final destination, but i wonder if it would have been better to leave religion out of the execution chamber and allow for it to be a government act, which it was.
this culture though is not likely to easily divorce their religious passions with the governmental process so this will be another mountain for the iraqi democracy to climb.
despite news reports though the reaction to the execution was not nearly as violent as reporter early. on arab television we have seen more celebration than devastation.
tomorrow iraq will wake up in a new year and it will be a new day for the nation absent its former dictator.
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