My Two Cents on Saddam

* You want to hang an a**hole? Fine! Go ahead! Do it at your own liesure. Have as much time/fun as you want. Just don't rub it in. I never had anything to do with him. Nor did my religion, for that matter. He was just another dictator, never a religious figure.

* Getting rid of Saddam is the first great deed in the 21st century.

* Next in line we have... oh, don't bother. None of them are sitting on oil. Humanity is irrelevant when there's no under-current of fossil-fuel involved.

* Some were offended by the way he was taunted. It was wrong and immoral to do that to a dying man. I didn't mind much, though. I remember watching a video of him. He called up hundreds of prominent Iraqi intellectuals in a conference room. It started off as a friendly conversation. Suddenly, all doors were locked and army personnel filled the room. Then someone started calling out the names of those who opposed Saddam. Saddam -- shiny, brave, bold, and confident as ever -- was sitting with a smile in his face while the "guilty" were taken away. No one saw them ever again. You feel pity for this kind of a person? At least he got a trial! Imagine yourself being in one such cat-and-mouse game of his!

* Saddam should have been made to sit through all the cases against him. He was tried for massacre during the early 1980's. That was the time he was consolidating his power on Iraq. Some argue that he was just being harsh to those who attempted to assassinate him and show other such examples. Few more incidents should have been allowed to surface before he was hanged.

* I grew up with a rumor around me. There's a strong belief in many that the First Gulf War wasn't entirely Saddam's fault. The rumor suggested that President George H. W. Bush may have triggered for the oil. It is also said that Kuwait was cross-drilling in Iraqi territory. I was hopeful that the truth would come out during Saddam's trials. Funny thing is, I never heeded the rumor until Saddam's trials. There was a strong effort to restrict everything to the 1980's. What was so taboo about 1990's?

* Of all days, why the day of Eid-ul-Azha? It's a great day for the Muslims. It's the day we offer sacrifice, yes. We don't sacrifice the old, useless, the culprit or the scumbag, though. We sacrifice our best. We sacrifice that which we love most. It was said that Saddam has been sacrificed on that day. What the f**k?! Since when is Saddam dear to all Muslims? Since when has he become my best possession? Since when is Saddam as close to me/us/Muslims as Ismail was to his father Ibrahim? It's an offense totally uncalled for.

* I was strip-searched in front hundreds on my way to the US. It was the most embarrassing moment in my life. I still support ethnic profiling. I am as strong a proponent of free speech and free agency as there is. I still support oversight and eavesdropping to some extent. I am willing to pay the price for security. As long as the intent is not corrupt. I may have been the wrong guy to search, but it was done for a good purpose. Afghanistan may have witnessed all possible violation of international law, but still I support it since it prevented a historic retrogression. Iraq may not have actually had WMD, but it could have and it was willing to. At the end of the day, it's fair to say that Iraq needed some sort of fix. If the timing of Saddam's execution could finally upset someone like me, just imagine what it did to the rest of the world. Such an unnecessary religious color could (and probably will) prove too costly in the end.