Kowabunga

Saddam Hussein's death penalty is upheld. FoxNews:

An Iraqi appeals court has upheld the death sentence imposed on Saddam Hussein at his first trial, Iraq's national security adviser said Tuesday, and a tribunal official said the verdict will be carried out even if the presidency doesn't ratify it.

Capital punishment has recently come under fire again in the United States, and some western countries oppose it for moral reasons, which I cannot accept as legitimate when they do support abortion. The moral reason argument is, at least for the most part, about the risk of executing a criminal and later finding that the person executed was, in fact, innocent.

We cannot correct the wrongs of the past, however, when was the last time an innocent was executed in the United States by mistake? I am not aware of any such incidents in recent years. (Note: if anyone knows a website with accurate information on this, post it in the comments below…I'd be interested in the facts on this.) The advent of DNA testing makes it extremely difficult today to inadvertently convict and execute an innocent. However, that is today's technology.

In the case of Saddam Hussein, it is hard to say that his execution could be wrongful. Hussein and his regime were responsible for the murder of something like a half-million Iraqi's over the course of some 24 years. His hands are not just covered in the blood of innocents, political opponents, and dissidents; his whole body is covered in their blood.

Nor is there anything wrong with execution by hanging; or by firing squad, electric chair, gas chamber, decapitation (probably the quickest and cleanest form of execution).

Since Hussein is destined to hang, if the people of Iraq are looking for a good place to do it, I would suggest that square in Baghdad that a U.S. Army tank helped the people topple one of his statues. Since that statue is now gone, it is s good a spot as any to let him do his final dance.