CELEBRATING NOTHING

MSNBC's website reports that Iraqi-Americans are celebrating the execution of Saddam. While I can see why those who have suffered under his brutal regime in the past would either heave a sigh of relief or explode in bouts of rapture upon hearing the news of his demise, I cannot fanthom why an Iraqi-American would celebrate if he or she still has family back in Iraq.

The situation in Iraq is getting more precarious as the days go by. Despite all the political posturing on whether the situation there can be accurately classified as a civil war, there is no doubt that life in Iraq today is just as capricious and dangerious as the Saddam days. It is fair to say that there is as much of a likelihood of an Iraqi civilian getting blown up in the streets of Baghdad today as the same person getting killed for no apparent reason during the Saddam era. To that end, what exactly are Iraqi Americans celebrating for, given that their relatives back home are no better off today than they were under a brutal dictatorship?