SADDAM HUSSEIN HANGED

It's happened. Saddam Hussein is dead.

I cannot imagine how the people who have suffered at this monster's hands must feel. I can hope it brings a sense of peace, but I don't know.

From here, his actual death feels an irrelevancy. He was dead from the moment they pulled his pathetic figure out of that hole in the ground. The fact that he is now gone for good may perhaps aid in the building of Iraq. Let's hope so. There is no going back now.

But the fact remains that he has done far worse to this world than we could ever have done to him. Not just his thirty years of tyrannical rule over his own people, but the legacy of his refusal not to comply with the UN. We now know he didn't let the inspectors in not because he had WMD, but because he didn't. He didn't want to be shown with his pants down. And the war that has resulted from this is sickening, seemingly without end and global in its proportions.

I wonder what would have happened had he never invaded Kuwait, had we never had to impose sanctions, had we never had to make him comply with UN resolutions. But then that doesn't paint a particularly pretty picture either. We would have let him carry on, wouldn't we?

So no rejoicing from me. Saddam was a problem and every solution to him was wrapped in explosives. Better to wonder what the world would be like if Saddam had not been a cruel, dangerous and merciless leader. That's a better picture. For everyone.

But he wasn't, and now he's dead.