by Glenda K. Fralin

Created on: May 17, 2008

This question tends to put forward an ideology that the United States took part somehow in the hanging of Saddam Hussein. What the United States did was to leave it in the hands of the new Iraqi government. The United States neither condoned nor condemned the use of capital punishment for the deposed dictator.

Now to answer the question of what it means for the United States for Saddam Hussein to be dead.

In my opinion, the death of Saddam means the same to the United States as it does to the remainder of the free world. More importantly is the importance of his death for the Iraqi people.

A Comparison of Dictators:

In order to illustrate my point think of what history shows of the lack of knowledge of Hitler's death until after the wall fell in the 1980's. There had long been several opinions as to what happened to Hitler after his defeat in WWII. Nazi and White Supremacist groups continued to grow for decades throughout parts of Europe and the United States.

White Supremacists groups were not new, but the fear of the continuation of the Nazi regime in the closets of neighbors was very unsettling. The Neo Nazi movement broke out of that and became much more public when some of the fears began to fade.

The other school of thought was that Hitler was likely dead, some knew he was dead, but kept the idealism alive. Once Hitler's death and place of burial was known beyond doubt, there was no way to stop the ideology that followed his insane and dangerous mindset.

Some think that point has been made too much. But, I feel those who believe so are too young to remember the aftermath of WWII politics that lasted for nearly 50 more years, slowly dwindling over the later 20 of those 50 years.

The meaning of Saddam Hussein's Death to the United States:

Now, I return to the question first set forth by this article. What does it mean to the United States for Saddam Hussein to be dead? Personally, I feel that it is the beginning of a finally to his regime.

Besides the fact that we assisted in the deposing of a sadistic dictator the death of Saddam releases us and other countries from a threat, and a defiant self imposed demigod. Saddam used a tactic employed by many former dictators who were once supposed allies.

He would make treaties, sign promises, and then break them. Then he would go through a cycle of total non-compliance, back to more promises of compliance, and continue the cycle. Throughout these cycles, he would have his own way of thumbing his nose at the rest of the

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