Here's the
phone-cam video of Saddam's hanging, for as long as it works anyway. I found it surprisingly gruesome, but not for the reasons I expected. It seems much more like an unpopular kid getting a wedgie than a state execution. That is, if a wedgie broke your neck.
I don't have any sympathy for Saddam, but can you imagine how alone he must have felt just before he dropped? It was basically a legal lynching that the
entire world supported.
I've been in my fair share of fights where I've had friends in a circle around me, and a few where I had no friends around me. In both instances I felt very alone, but I mostly felt like I wouldn't die. The once or twice that I did feel like I might die, I knew I would be missed. I can't imagine what that experience would be like if I had no friends near me, I wouldn't be missed, and my death would be seen as a good thing for the entire world.
Do you think he thought that, or was he so full of himself that he felt he was a martyr? Or is he a martyr?