Bravery in Saddam's Iraq

When an attendee of the execution foolishly shouted "Muqtada", Saddam responded by asking "is this your manhood?" or "is this what you consider bravery?" I didn't like hearing Muqtada's name during the execution, as if this was being done to avenge Muqtada. Sadr's was only one of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi families who lost innocent loved ones to Saddam's regime. This is justice for Iraq, for all Iraqis. I would have done a few things differently if I were in charge of the execution, starting with postponing it until after the Anfal trial. But I am dismayed by Arabs and Muslims who are calling it a 'barbaric lynching'. I wonder if they have ever considered the barbarity of the insurgency in Iraq, or the barbarity of Saddam's regime.

The remark about bravery - one of Saddam's last - reminded me of what fedayeen Saddam did to a 25 year old Iraqi woman in 2000. Apparently this is an example what Saddam considered to be the mark of bravery in his Iraq:

'A woman known as Um Haydar was beheaded reportedly without charge or trial at the end of December 2000. She was 25 years' old and married with three children. Her husband was sought by the security authorities reportedly because of his involvement in Islamist armed activities against the state. He managed to flee the country. Men belonging to Feda'iyye Saddam came to the house in al-Karrada district and found his wife, children and his mother. Um Haydar was taken to the street and two men held her by the arms and a third pulled her head from behind and beheaded her in front of the residents. The beheading was also witnessed by members of the Ba'ath Party in the area. The security men took the body and the head in a plastic bag, and took away the children and the mother-in-law. The body of Um Haydar was later buried in al-Najaf. The fate of the children and the mother-in-law remains unknown.'