I love this notion of trying to sell Saddam's execution as being more about justice than about retribution. Capital punishment is all about retribution. Being me, I'm OK with that. But c'mon, just call it what it is. Trying to say it's something that it's not is a waste of time because every knows better, or at least they think they do and that's all that's really gonna matter.

U.S. officials reportedly tried to delay last week's execution of Hussein, fearing it would fuel perceptions the death of the former Iraqi dictator was more about Shiite retribution and less about justice.

How exactly was that going to help anything? Better to just get it over with so that people can get pissed and get on with the shit causing, since they were gonna do that anyway regardless of what happened or when it happened.