Saddam is a nasty piece of work, yes. And that he committed some of the appaling crimes imaginable is beyond doubt. Even at the simplest level, the suffering heaped on his people caused by his refusal to cooperate with the UN lead to countless deaths of children and the infirm. But I don't think, executing him was a good decision, and I don't just mean for the voilent retribution that has inevitably ensued and will doubtless carry on endlessly. What purpose will it have served? Creating a martyre out of a man who now looks set to become a figurehead for Sunnis and othere in whose name to commit more ghastly atrocity and murder? One might wonder. Surely he could have gone to the Hague, and should have been treated in the same way as Milosevic was. All this episode smacks of an idiotic vendetta-driven affair - he was captured by the Americans only to be handed over to his political enemies, put on a 'show' trial and then hung by them eventually.