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This forum is not appropriate for lionizing and celebrating the evil of the Hussein regime.

And I do neither. But I do not see the appointed time for an execution to be whooping it up and jumping for joy either. Justice was served and rightly so. But do mere observers have a right to rejoice, make jokes, etc.? That is reserved for the victims of the criminal. Joviality? Joking? Suggesting a dead pool for the time of his death? Cartoonish characterizations? This was not so far different than the civilians sitting in the stands at the Colosseum cheering the death of a criminal who had not personally affected their lives

No, civilized society may have offered a good riddance and then a time of remembrance for his victims or a time to look within ourselves to see how he came to power and to ensure it did not happen again. But this was...words escape me. I think it does make a very important statement on where our society is. Unfortunately that statement will escape many as well.

Flame away. I have no sorrow for a tyrant's death. However I cannot say the same on the apparent direction we are headed

But this was...words escape me.

With all the pc infecting FR these days it is getting hard for a guy to find appropriate words anymore.

Your words have much merit. I do not mourn the death of this tyrant, but neither do I feel celebratory over his demise. I have much sorrow that the world has to bear the burdens of such evil men like this bestow upon it. Further, I pity those casual bystanders who feel the need to "celebrate" something which has little to do with them directly. Even for those with family serving in Iraq, there is nothing here to celebrate. My son is still there. My nephew is still there. My brother-in-law's niece is still there. The men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces are still there, still fighting those who love death. Saddam's death has change nothing for them.

billbears, as a student of the Founding Fathers and the culture of early America, how do you see a country with stocks and pillories and debtors prisons and slavery, as being superior to a society that celebrates the death of one who slaughtered thousands?

I'm not defending either situation............just pointing out that what has been said on this thread is due to the nature of humanity, and not a sign of the degradation of a society.

(There are plenty of other signs of that, but this thread is most certainly not one of them).

And I do neither. But I do not see the appointed time for an execution to be whooping it up and jumping for joy either. Justice was served and rightly so. But do mere observers have a right to rejoice, make jokes, etc.? That is reserved for the victims of the criminal.

As I said in a earlier post to somebody else, it is a solemn thing to have to do, to meet out justice by killing somebody.

That said, it's also worth celebrating. Saddam's death marks a point forward where he could never be a threat again.

Victims celebrate. So do people who can imagine what it must be like to be a victim. It's our moral obligation to walk in somebody else's shoes -- not to sit back and say that only the victim can imagine what it must be like.

Back in WWII we had to kill many Japanese before they finally surrendered. It was August 1945. The emperor of Japan surrendered.

Saddam never did surrender. He was defiant until the end. So it was his execution that ended the threat of Saddam and both solemn and celebratory thoughts are in order.

I'm sure there were many a solemn contemplation back in August of '45.

There was also celebration.

Appropriately so.