On this day in 2006, Saddam Hussein was executed. It’s an odd thing. I have very mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, he was an evil despot. On the other, far worse men live their whole lives in the lap of luxury. I certainly think he should have been brought to justice. But by the Bush administration?! It’s especially interesting because the Iraq War was only possible because of the 9/11 attacks, which Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with. So the mastermind of 9/11, Osama bin Laden, was totally forgotten by the Bush administration, but they got Saddam Hussein. Hooray!

I just don’t like the idea that Bush and Cheney will go to their very comfortable graves thinking that they somehow did a good thing in capturing and killing him. As it is, the net effect of the Iraq War has been the murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Is the death of Hussein in any way compensation for that? Indeed, his evil deeds were a thing of the past. He was a very useful tool in keeping Iraq stable without being able to do any major harm. He was put to death for things he did in 1982 — when he was our ally.

I don’t know. I suppose it is just the hypocrisy of the United States that most bothers me. And Saudi Arabia continues to be an absolutely horrible country, yet they are our ally. And it always will be. Because once fossil fuels become unimportant, we won’t care what despots in the Middle East do. We will just abandon them. We are a screwed up country. I remember watching during the lead up to the Persian Gulf War how Saddam Hussein was turned into some major villain. People like him are a dime a dozen. When they are useful to support, we support them. When they are useful to vilify, we vilify them. There is something really wrong with us. If the United States were a person, it would rightly be diagnosed as a psychopath.