The execution of Saddam Hussein did not go well for Prime Minister al-Maliki. He's taken nothing but heat for it and the way it was botched ever since. Particularly incensed were Saddam's own people, Iraq's Sunnis.
There were any number of reasons why Saddam had to go. It wasn't carried out well and the timing sucked but Saddam could have remained a threat to the government if he wasn't killed.
That said, it is now open to Maliki to make a gesture of reconciliation to his Sunni citizens by commuting the death sentences of Saddam's half-brother and the former head of the Revolutionary Court now also condemned to die. Hanging them will only confirm Sunni suspicions that these are vengeance killings, victor's justice.
Commuting their sentences to life imprisonment, showing mercy to those who showed none to the Kurds and Shia, could go a long way to dampening the sectarian fury triggered by the hanging of Saddam. It is an option that Maliki should weigh carefully.
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