Iraqi bloggers on Saddam verdict

Iraqi bloggers have been reacting to the guilty verdict and death sentence against Saddam Hussein. This is our second snapshot of postings from Iraqi bloggers. Their views give an insight into areas of life in the country that are otherwise hard to reach.

Zeyad is a 27 year old Iraqi dentist from Baghdad. He started writing his blog Healing Iraq in October 2003. He is now studying journalism in New York, but he is still in touch with many bloggers inside his country.

Here, we offer postings from Zeyad and other Iraqi bloggers after the death sentence on Saddam Hussein.

Click here to read the first Iraqi blog round-up

This story contains links to external websites which are not subject to the usual BBC editorial controls.

healingiraq.blogspot.com/

Monday, Nov 6, 2006: So the tyrant will be hanged. A moment that Iraqis awaited for years, but now that it's here, it seems to be tasteless.

Not that it will fail to bring a much-deserved sense of justice to the families of his victims, but because of the unprofessional and highly politicised manner with which it was handled.

Take a look at the celebrating Iraqis on the streets: whose posters are they carrying?

This is not as much a celebration of the death of Saddam as much as a celebration of the birth of new tyrants and warlords.

The new victors in Iraq are the followers of Sadr [Shia cleric, Moqtada Sadr] and Hakim [leader of Iraq's biggest Shia political party, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim], and as the Baathists and Sunni insurgents and jihadists become more localised and irrelevant, the next conflict will be between those two.

This demonstrator in Sadr City brandishes a Glock handgun that was issued by Americans to Iraqi security forces. Now we know where those thousands of weapons have disappeared to.

riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Riverbend is an Iraqi woman in Baghdad. Her blogs have already been published in two books.

Sunday, November 5, 2006: Execute the dictator. It's that simple.

When American troops are being killed by the dozen, when the country you are occupying is threatening to break up into smaller countries, when you have militias and death squads roaming the streets and you've put a group of Mullahs in power - execute the dictator.

Iraq saw demonstrations against and for the verdict. The pro-Saddam demonstrators were attacked by the Iraqi army.

This is how free our media is today: the channels that were showing the pro-Saddam demonstrations have been shut down. Iraqi security forces promptly raided them.

Welcome to the new Iraq.

The Zawra channel ran a subtitle saying that the channel has stopped broadcasting by order of the government.

It's not about the man - presidents come and go, governments come and go.

It's the frustration of feeling like the whole country and every single Iraqi inside and outside of Iraq is at the mercy of American politics.

neurotic-iraqi-wife.blogspot.com/

Neurotic Iraqi wife is an Iraqi-American woman living and working in the Green Zone.

Sunday November 5 2006: I didn't want the death penalty. I wanted him to get life imprisonment and rot in a one metre by one metre cell.

I wanted his pride to be broken. I wanted him to live to the day were he will see a better Iraq. Whatever remaining years he had, I wanted him to live them in fear, in solitude, in despair...

justsooni.blogspot.com/

Sooni is an IT programmer blogging from Baghdad.

Sunday November 5 2006: Finally, we folded the book of tyranny in Iraq.

It was not surprising to hear the death penalty, Saddam killed more than anyone can imagine with his wars and the countless atrocities against his own people.

But it was surprising to see a good bunch of whiners grieving upon the tyrant.

secretsinbaghdad.blogspot.com/

Secrets in Baghdad is Khalid Jarrar, a 24 year old engineering student in Baghdad.

Monday, November 6, 2006: Saddam is nothing but a political card American politicians are playing against the American public.

And what exactly is his death going to do to improve Iraq or life in Iraq?

The sectarian tension or the security situation? The electricity or water? The curfews or the blocked streets? The puppet government or the dirty politicians? The loans of the billions stolen from Iraq as cash or oil since the invasion by Iraqi or Americans politicians?

Nothing at all.

iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

Iraq the Model is written by two brothers in Baghdad.

Saturday Nov 4, 2006: Saddam's trial is a trial for all tyrants who oppressed their peoples and a tough warning to whose who think they have the right to control nations with fire and steel and get away with it.

It is just a one trial in a series of trials yet to come; there are many more criminals in our land and they will eventually meet the same fate as Saddam's.

iraqithoughts.blogspot.com/

An Iraqi's thoughts is written by a 25 year old Iraqi man, living in the UAE.

Monday November 6 2006: The media picks up a rally in Tikrit and a rally in Sadr City and then can generalize the whole verdict into two camps. If only life was that simple.

The truth is I know Sunni Arabs who were happy with the verdict and I know Shia Arabs who were saddened by what happened.

We need to think about the hundreds of thousands who died, the plus one million who have been displaced and live in countries because they don't have one of their own, they were all victims of this terrible tyrant.