I'm watching the news coverage of Saddam Hussein's impending execution, which the cable news folks are covering with a kind of smug excitement. They always like it when they think they've got your attention. Larry King just told us that if they're in the middle of a commercial break and they get word that Saddam has been hanged, they will cut out of that commercial break instantly. This is great because I wouldn't want to be watching an ad for eHarmony.com and miss the precise moment. I mean, there's news that can't wait for thirty seconds.
Much of the discussion is about how it's vital that Hussein be hanged "respectfully" and that his corpse not be mistreated. This is good to know. It's okay to kill a guy but no one wants to see him embarrassed.
What I'm kind of waiting to hear, and I haven't yet, is who benefits from executing him now. I'm not questioning that he deserves the ultimate penalty, whatever that is. I'd just like to hear someone finish a sentence that begins, "This will be help bring peace to Iraq because…" Given the price so many have paid to topple this regime and bring Hussein to trial, it would be nice if we got more out of this than the satisfaction of one less bad man in the world.