These guys are despicable human beings. They deserve to be removed from society and imprisoned for life. And they have been. They won’t be hacking off any more arms and legs. They won’t be raping and sodomizing helpless women. And they won’t be recruiting children to fight their battles for them. But they will not be executed. For their crimes they will sit in steel cages for the rest of their lives, contemplating and (hopefully) regretting their savage brutality toward their fellow human beings.

On Air America Radio today, Sam Seder noted the numerous benefits for Bush in the hurried-up Saddam Hussein execution.

These include the traditional "what, me report?" Friday news void (an especially yawning gap, given the holiday weekend) and helping drown out coverage of the 3,000 dead American troops milestone.

On the other hand, the execution's timing relative to the Muslim Eid holiday — potentially convenient for helping keep the peace — was, in fact, an extra affront to those who view Hussein as a martyr.

Dick Cheney, 1992:

And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

"Meet the new boss,
same as the old boss"

From Faux News we have this:

Bush Vows to Keep U.S. Troops in Iraq to Support Iraqi PM Al-Maliki

AMMAN, Jordan — President Bush said Thursday the United States will speed a turnover of security responsibility to Iraqi forces but assured Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that Washington is not looking for a "graceful exit" from a war well into its fourth violent year.

That's this al-Maliki:

Through the miracles of time travel and wikiquote, a younger Dick Cheney weighs in on the idea of killing Iraq in order to kill Saddam Hussein: