So, the almost comical trial ended and a handful of Iraqis have been sentenced to death, including the former dictator, Saddam Hussein. 40 or 50 Iraqis get killed in car bomb attacks regularly, making this trivial in basic human and mathematical terms.

I’m all in favour of capital punishment, but with an important caveat that somehow, the verdict is beyond any doubt whatsoever. I think this case probably qualifies, from what the media have said over the years – and by the Iraqi tanks rolling into Kuwait and the bombed Kurdish villages in the north of their own country.

I don’t like hanging, however. That is barbaric and there should be no need to resort to this. I believe that people who commit murder qualify for “an eye for an eye” and people who commit certain sexual attacks don’t deserve to live and benefit from the rest of humanity. They should pay the ultimate penalty. Surely a lethal injection is sufficient to do this, though? Choking someone on a rope or breaking the neck (whichever kills them) is a throw back to a less civilised time where it was “entertainment” for a baying and bloodthirsty crowd. I guess it also acted as a deterrent, back in those days, but does that apply now – now that death is a part of the average Iraqi’s daily life? I’m assuming the convicts will not be hung in front of the public in the middle of Baghdad but it’s a crazy world and I wouldn’t be suprised to see it on YouTube.

What is interesting is the reaction. The politicians come out in support of the decision, making no mention of the punishment. I’d like to know why we can’t bring back capital punishment for the most evil and vile members of our own society? I acknowledge the opinions of those against it, although I disagree – but I would expect these politicians not to look so smug, now that the sentence has been announced, when child rapists and killers sit in comfortable cells watching DVDs and playing computer games in our own country. There is (like always) a simmering hypocrisy about what they have said.

Apparently “Saddam’s evil reign of terror is now at an end”. I think everyone knew it was finished near the end of the war when the Iraqi propaganda minister said the Americans were being driven out, at the same moment that the tanks were entering the ravaged city. Do you know how long ago that was? 3 years ago. It’s hardly been a garden of roses since. Let’s also remember that no weapons of mass destruction were found buried in the flower bed, either.

Listening to some of the coverage today, I was also struck by the comments of some Iraqi people being interviewed. They said that whilst Saddam Hussein was in charge of the country, their lives were “normal” and now they were frightened to go out and their children could no longer safely go to school. I’m sure some people’s lives are now better – but surely, not much better, given the regular carnage on our televisions – and many more now perceive it to be much worse. With civil disorder likely short-term, and also around the time of the execution, are the best intentions of the West (and I’m sure there are good intentions in there somewhere) causing more problems than they are solving? Will this intervention and action ever deliver democratic order and a good life for the ordinary Iraqi without pushing them towards violent loathing of the West? With the two factions more apart than ever, I’m starting to question how it will ever end.