Return on Hemp Investment

Washington Post reports reaction in Iraq to Saddam's Hanging:

There was no sign of a feared Sunni uprising in retaliation for the execution, and the bloodshed from civil warfare on Saturday was not far off the daily average _ 92 from bombings and death squads.

[...]

"He's gone, but our problems continue," said the Shiite Muslim, whose uncle was killed in one of Saddam's many brutal purges. "We brought problems on ourselves after Saddam because we began fighting Shiite on Sunni and Sunni on Shiite."

[...]

There were cheers at the cafeteria of a U.S. outpost in Baghdad as soldiers having breakfast learned Saddam had been hanged. But members of the Army's 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment, on patrol in an overwhelmingly Shiite neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, said the execution wouldn't get them home any faster _ and therefore didn't make much difference. "Nothing really changes," said Capt. Dave Eastburn, 30. "The militias run everything now, not Saddam."

addendum to yeterday's post

Saddam Hussein came closer than I thought to matching Joe Stalin for longevity. Stalin pretty much had total control by 1927 which gives him 26 years. Saddam Hussein wielded comparable power from 1979 to 2003, a 24 year run. So they're pretty much the same in longevity. Stalin still gets despot points for the sheer scale and breadth of his terror and for his exit (state funeral, mausoleum, etc). Nonetheless, Saddam will rank prominently among the 20th Century's notable dictators.