If you’re looking for videos of Saddam’s execution to satisfy your morbid curiosity, you’ve come to the wrong place. Not that there aren’t hundreds of sites on the web already displaying the video as some sort of trophy. And that my friends, is exactly what Saddam’s head is – a trophy. There’s an odd sort of exaltation in America. People are actually rejoicing in the death of another human being, and even being drawn closer together after months of division. There’s a disgusting sense of patriotism and righteousness in America once more. As we often find out, pride is not just a sin, but a distraction.

Let us not forget that we are in Iraq under completely false pretenses. There were no WMDs, Iraq was not tied in any way to 9/11, and it was not a breeding ground for terrorists. If America is the police force of the world, we’ve kicked in the door to Iraq, found no illegal arms or activity, and decided to shoot the head of the household to justify our unsubstantiated allegations for intrusion. That we can easily barge into another country and execute their leader is a cause for great distress, not celebration.

Yes Saddam was a bastard (that’s the preface I’m forced to put ahead of my arguments to extend human rights to “evil” people), but the leaders of our own country are infinitely worse. What’s often ignored is that the crime Saddam was hanged for, the 1982 massacre of 148 Shiites in Dujail who opposed the Iran-Iraq War, was actually carried out while Saddam was a close ally of the Reagan administration, which encouraged the war with Iran. What’s more is that the US began backing him two years later with biological and chemical weapons to further embolden his “crimes against humanity” towards the Iranians. In 1988, Saddam would then use these same weapons against thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq. US companies continued to ship chemical and biological weapons to Saddam for a year after that incident.

The ex-US ally killed innocent people, but we gave him the gun, the bullets, and even whispered in his ear that using them would be a good idea. Why are our leaders not also being tried for these crimes? Surely they qualify as accomplices, or at least accessories for these human rights violations. Perhaps because the trial was a joke meant to silence Saddam rather than to enact justice. He was tried, convicted, and executed by his former partner in crime without adequate international oversight of the court.

With the death toll of American soldiers climbing higher each month, hundreds of Iraqis killed daily when it seems more bloodshed is impossible, not a single WMD found since the invasion, and no good plan in sight for the US-led “war on terror”, the American people needed validation. They needed something to show to their collective guilty conscience that all the money and blood was given for a reason. That noble cause became the elimination of a tyrant. Americans latched on to it. It lent credence to the lie that we were in Iraq for the Iraqi people. Finally, we’d established one point in history to refer to whenever the naysayers criticize the wisdom of invading. We’d acquired our well-deserved trophy.

It is known that President Bush has the pistol Saddam was carrying when he was captured mounted on his wall in the Oval office. He advertises it proudly to visitors as a souvenir of this meaningless war. Were the president allowed to, I would not be the least bit surprised to hear that Saddam’s head was recently mounted in place of that pistol. Bush has been unable to hide his jubilation lately, calling Saddam’s death sentence a “milestone” for justice. Given his trouble with the English language, I can only assume that the president misspoke, saying “milestone” when he should have said “headstone”.