Honestly, now ...
if you knew the Bathist party member who had your family members murdered, or had friends 'vanish' into a mass grave, or perhaps had your daughter raped to ensure your cooperation, would you hesitate to exact a little revenge?
I don't know about you, but I would have my day, and it wouldn't be merciful ....
I have no sympathy for these Baathist vermin. I cannot begin to tell you how much I've read about Saddam's depravity. I've read many, many books and articles about it which is why I've been a supporter of regime change in Iraq since 1991. I didn't need 9-11, WMD or Saddam's connections to Al Qaeda to convince me Saddam needed to go. His absolute horrors unleashed on the Iraqi people were beyond anything I've read since Stalin and Hitler. I have absolute contempt for Saddam and his Tikriti mafia that ran Iraq like a house of horrors. And I shed not one tear for any member of Saddam's terror apparatus being dealt final justice. Good riddance to bad trash.
My only worry in all this is that it contributes to less stability in Iraq, not more. And I want this effort in Iraq to succeed more than anything. I'm just not sure revenge killings, as viscerally satisfying as they may be, take us down the road of stability. Rather I see them furthering the culture of death, violence and instability there. While I'm glad to see these vile pigs sent back to hell from whence they came, my thinking side tells me this isn't good for the development of democracy in Iraq.