Saddam is kaput

It is being widely reported that Saddam Hussein has been executed. The cable TV news networks are now speculating about who has his body, and what will be done with it, and so forth. Whether his death will serve the cause of peace is as unclear as it gets, but it’s easy to say the man got what was coming to him, no matter how one feels about politics or the death penalty.

Click on the 'toon to enlarge it

During America’s first war with Iraq, in 1991, I had a weekly gig doing cartoons for a magazine called “Oh” and I drew a few panels with Saddam in them. For whatever reason I haven’t done a cartoon with him in it since that time. The one above is my favorite from the Desert Storm era. It was done right after a point when Saddam had foolishly ignored a noon deadline that the first President George Bush had issued.

From the onset, I always saw blustery Saddam as a clumsy, strutting rooster of a dictator to be mocked -- as a schmuck who didn’t get it.

Well, for what it’s worth ... now he’s gotten it. Saddam is kaput.