I would call one significant part of the Saddam hysteria as “manufacturing a martyrdom”. Saddam happened to be the “good boy” in the middle east for U.S. (and even India) before. Also his relatively secular outlook and urge for developing his nation could qualify him to be a relatively “benevolent dictator” during his early tenure. He was also the sole Arab nation head who openly supported India on the Kashmir issue. All these might add leverage to his image in India or elsewhere but the bottomline remains; he did mass murder people and that too wasn’t a mere survival exercise.

Now there is no point in comparing him with his “prosecutor” a.k.a George W Bush. By any yard stick if Saddam was a cruel dictator Bush should be called “Count Dracula” (the blood thirst vampire who hunts at night). But here the question is not about any “poetic justice”. It is rather a tussle of power. I do not agree with elevating Saddam to the level of Cheguera and for that matter condems his death too.

Your last statement is an ever relavent one. “Freedom is not a static right, it is a struggle too”. If next ‘I’ is India the solution lies in being vigilant and uphelding our independence as against “mere US appeasement” tactics in international politics.