That would be an incredibly dumb deal. They should have just shot him out-of-hand when he was captured.

David! They didn't even have positive ID at that point. Vigilante justice, anyone?

"But it is unclear if those at the talks genuinely represent a majority of the deeply fragmented insurgency"

I'm with David. Awkward that he was captured alive, and now they need to proceed quickly to remove a continueing nuisance.

The danger of letting Saddam live is that, when bad times come in the future, people will become nostalgic for the "good old days" and put Saddam back in power. The chances of that are pretty slim, of course, but I'd rather see him dead.

At the same time, this isn't really our decision to make.

If he hadn't been captured alive there'd still be phantom Saddam sightings all over the country. He is a bit awkward now, though...

if it was good enough for goerhing its good enough for saddam...bon appetit mon cherie.

Ghostcat is right. It would have been barbaric to shoot him before he was positively identified.

There's democracy in Iraq, now the Iraqis get to make their own choices. It does seem like a dumb political move to me, but maybe the Iraqi voters are more in tune with the Vatican's stand on the death penalty than I am.

I don't buy it. I can't imagine that the Sunni insurgency feels that much affection for Saddam.

Indeed, I imagine that there are plenty of former Ba'athist who'd be quite happy with Saddam dead.

Even they must recognize that it was his hubris, his unwillingness to even budge an inch towards the demads of the West, that brought the world down around them.

Saddam didn't have to stand up to the W. et al., he could have taken those looted billions into comfortable exile in Saudi Arabia, leaving the Ba'ath and the Sunnis comfortably in charge in Iraq.

No, this doesn't sound right to me.

Mark my words, Saddam will soon enough, and rightly enough, be dancing at the end of a rope.

Don't worry. The Iraqis will have him executed. Partly for revenge. But mostly to show the Tikritis that their time alone at the top is over. A live Saddam is always a symbol of resistance. It's like in the old days. When the barons deposed Edward II in the 1300's, they couldn't let him stay alive. Every disaffected Tom, Dick and Harry would rally to his cause. Edward had to die.

Saddam will die, too. But first, the new government will detail in a lovely show trial all the murders this man committed.

Personally, between you and me and the lamp post, he did a hell of a job dragging his country kicking and screaming into the 20th century. His downfall was not understanding the United States. But then again, few dictators do.

Speaking of Edward II . . .

I wouldn't mind seeing Saddam meet his end a similar manner.

how do you drag a country into the 20th century while completely neglecting the infrastructure ? other than build ugly palaces, did saddam really do any modernizing ?

Baathists saving face? That's the whole idea, to crush them beyond recall. We are not talking about a nation or a people, but a criminal conspiracy. Saddam Hussein's manifold crimes are not to be disposed of by a single act of supposed political expediency. He is our prisoner, we should try him, by military commission. The Iraqis have a place in line, as do the Iranians. We should not excuse major crimes against humanity to make a deal with the criminal's associates. Who does he think he is, Hirohito?

cjm - The way you drag your country into the modern era is to start a war against the US, so that we can defeat you, establish democracy, and help you rebuild.

Miller is right. The question is who planted the story and why?

Saddam needs to meet his end in a very public manner, not down the dungeon with a poker like Edward II. More like Charles I: out in the open so that everyone knows the tyrant is dead and there's no question. Like Cromwell allegedly said: "Cut his head off with the crown on it!"

Well, is there any evidence that Saddam has a great following even among the insurgents or that there is any serious possibility resistance could galvanize around him. Has anybody heard of "Free Saddam" posters or marches since the war? I have never seen much evidence of a personality cult. Che Guevera he ain't. His life may be eminently dispensible, which implies that his death may be too.

I think I can see it. Imagine you're trying to cobble together a very fragile democratic alliance between three groups in infertile territory. A huge task and you don't need emotional flashpoints or sectional martyrs. The people want peace and expect prosperity, and you need money and investment. You've got Euros and UN types and even American legalists harping at you about the rule of law, fair trials and international law, and you can figure out from Milosevic what that means. The lamp post is not an option. Gotta go through months of public inquiry and a lot of names will surface.

Lots of Germans were relieved and grateful when Hitler was defeated, but I don't think there was much popular taste for the Nuremburg hangings. Russia still won't call to account for the historical horrors. Too much emotional ambiguity. Not worth it when you have to build from ruins.

Jim in Chicago:
I believe that they rammed a hot poker up Edward II's rectum in order to leave no marks. Hussain doesn't deserve that dignity.