Law West of the Tigris

You'll get a fair trial, followed by a first-class hanging.

--Judge Roy Bean

So Saddam is no longer hanging around dogging the Bush boys. This performance takes its cue from a bad Spaghetti Western. Not only was he run out of town, he was strung up by a posse. The sheriff didn't even try to save the prisoner from the mob. This is not the standard western to which U.S. audiences are accustomed.

Lynch mob justice is no justice at all, but Saddam was not the sole object of this exercise. Hangings usually have a larger message beyond the snap of an individual neck. That message was loud and clear, and extended far beyond the individual. What snapped there was the last hope of the U.S. gaining anything meaningful from this chaos. When Saddam's neck snapped, our legitimacy went with it.

The subtext of this particular example of Western-style justice was as follows: There is no reconciliation to be had between Sunni and Shia. We, the Shiites, can symbolically and actually snap your neck, so if you do not assume a posture of submission, this is your fate, too. We are in power, and Sunnis are the new underdog ("How does it feel/To be on your own/With no direction home/Like a complete unknown...")

This event demonstrates the intransigent nature of this struggle which will never be resolved through democratic practices. Only blood will bring this struggle to a resolution, and I suspect it will get much worse before it gets any better.