So, Saddam Hussein has now been put to death, which ends a violent chapter in the history of the people of Iraq. While convicted of crimes against humanity and having undoubtedly done horrible things to some of his people, he also had (at one time) the support of the United States and was able to create a secular Islamic nation that did not have the fundamentalist anger so rampant in the Middle East. I wonder who or what will take his place and if the three groups of people in Iraq, cultures that are seemingly independent and never clearly saw themselves as part of a united Iraq, can indeed form a single nation.

I think of these people here on New Year’s, and wish them and us the best for 2007. Let us work toward making it more peaceful than the previous year.