I think that any human life lost is a tragedy. Even those who have done evil. Everyone has friends, family, and loved ones. We have all done evil. However, sometimes a tragedy like a human life being lost is of less concern than the tragedy created by the human life that’s being eliminated. If this is the case, so be it. It’s not my place to judge – I don’t understand how it’s any human’s right to declare another human should not live any longer. Mr. Hussein should receive grave punishment, and he did, but is imposed death ever ethical? I hope we reach a point in our world (during our lifetime) when we can answer that question. I think the answer will be that only the perfect can pass judgement – and no one is perfect on Earth.

The more effective punishment would be to humanely keep Saddam imprisoned until he dies (of natural causes). By killing Saddam, we are no better than the man we are punishing. We are performing the same crime. We could show the world how humane we are, but we can only show our own evil.

Oh, and by the way, think about this:

• The US, with its highly organized legal system and prisons, etc. takes years to execute convicts. Iraq, with its newly established and arguably less organized systems completed Saddam’s execution within weeks(?) of his conviction. Just food for thought.

Why don’t we spend our time, energy, and resources on saving as many lives as we can?