Saddam's execution an obsenity

IT'S difficult to show sympathy with Saddam Hussein. He was an evil tyrrant who seemed to glory in putting thousands of his own citizens to death, and especially the Kurds.

But as someone who opposes the death penalty, I found the television images of his walk to the scafford, and the mobile phone images of his demise, to be the true meaning of obscene.

It would have been far better to have let him rot in jail and contemplate his awful deeds. He may over time have come to repent. Putting him to death was a cheap option, but don't be surprised if much of the Islamaic world comes to revere him as a martyr.

Iraq is far from the safe, secure perfection that Blair and Bush promised would be the result of the invasion and war. Yes Saddam was overthrown, but the world is not the safer place we were lead to believe it would become.

The loss of so many allied lives, not to mention the daily death toll among Iraqi civilians, is proof that the end does not justify the means.