With regard to the sedation, do you have proof? I have this from Munir Haddad, an appeals court judge who witnessed the hanging, told the BBC that Saddam was not sedated. ''He was aware of his fate, and he knew he was about to face death," Haddad said. "[Saddam said] 'This is my end, this is the end of my life, but I started my life as a fighter and as a political militant, so death does not frighten me.' ''
And there is no admiration of Saddam over Bush. Of course, it's the standard attack. I should expect no less. I was only relating that dictators are normally big babies. Clearly, the mindset of those in Iraq is different than we seem to understand, and death or the threat of death doesn't seem to make cower in fear. But of course you twist that into admiration. It was astonishment.
As I said, had the President's comments been aimed at me, I would have freaked. It doesn't appear that the never ending supply of zealots has that fear.
You need to measure that in months joesbucks not years, when you consider attacks on US interests abroad during that time period. Thankfully we don't have to say the same since 9-11. And had the millenium bomber not been stopped by an alert border agent, we'd have seen something actually on American soil 18 months before we did. The Cole, the embassy etc...these are attacks we know about, other attack attempts that failed may also have occured. One can add in OKC and TWA 800 if you tend to believe eyewitness reports rather than official government positions, but I digress.
I continue to suspect Hussein was indeed sedated. Or in some way rendered unable to protest or resist during the clip of his noosing that's been circulated. I have no proof, of course, but neither do you. But then I also suspect Martha Stewart was on heavy Xanax when her verdict was read too. It's a common practice when tv cameras are sure to be focused.