What's the difference between Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush?

A bad moustache? A limited grasp of the English language? A sore neck?

The answer is actually much simpler: not a damn thing.

Now that the dust has settled over Saddam's grave, the time is ripe to make a quick comparison of both men's reprehensible careers.

The similarities are stark, not least because one is a bastard son of Satan and the other, well, the son of George Bush Sr.

Saddam signed the death warrants of 148 Shi'ite villagers who defied his rule in 1982, for which he went to trial.

George W. signed the death warrants to execute 152 US prisoners during his six-year reign as the Governor of Texas, a number unrivalled in American history.

Both used Abu Ghraib prison to inflict torture on prisoners, had family members in high places and were blinded by power, greed and oil.

They continually blurred the line between church and state, with Saddam using government money to push Islam and George defying the US Constitution by introducing a law in Texas which made June 10 "Jesus Day".

Ultimately, both are war criminals and chief architects of the deaths of thousands of innocent people.

Don't get me wrong, Saddam deserved to rot in an uncomfortable prison cell for however long it took him to die.

Instead he was sentenced to death Old Testament-style, to the delight of Bush and his Australian cronies, particularly Alexander Downer.

The hanging was a grisly backward step in the consistently disastrous war in Iraq and an ominous precursor to the promise a new year is supposed to bring.

And it's disconcerting to discover so many people in Cairns appear to agree with it.

Texts to the editor were ghoulish in their support of the execution, and all five participants in a recent The Cairns Post They Say street poll unanimously agreed with the gruesome outcome.

Of more than 215 people who voted in The Cairns Post website poll "Should Saddam Hussein have been hanged?", 53 per cent said "yes".

"Stretch his neck, he's scum," Ian from Kewarra wrote.

"He should be tortured," reckons Michelle from Bayview Heights.

"Yes (hang him), with a public stoning as well," added Andrew from White Rock.

God help our justice system if these people are ever called up for jury duty.

Their ugly sentiments echo the bloodcurdling cries of extremist Muslims in fundamentalist Islamic countries, where zealots revel in the savage treatment of criminals and the vicious handling of those - mostly women - who contravene primitive religious doctrines.

The only thing Bush got right about Iraq was his hope that it might shine as a leading light of democracy in the Middle East, producing a domino effect in other rogue states.

But things went pear-shaped when that intention turned to action, and now he's culpable for the deaths of 3000 US soldiers and countless thousands of Iraqi civilians.

I wonder if those Far Northeners who so fervently supported Saddam's execution will call for Bush to receive
similar punishment.