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The dictator has met his end, at the hands of the people he tormented for decades. He received more justice in a single day of his trial than he ever gave anyone during his reign of terror.

The New York Times gives its readers a blow-by-blow description of Saddam Hussein's final moments, which seems especially helpful now that the bootleg video of the execution has hit the viral network.

However, the tone of this piece is more suited to the valediction of a national hero than a genocidal dictator, and it makes the Times look as though they are mourning the loss of Saddam Here are a few of the relevant points in the prose:

Saddam Hussein never bowed his head, until his neck snapped...

His executioners wore black ski masks, but Mr. Hussein could still see their deep brown skin and hear their dialects, distinct to the Shiite southern part of the country, where he had so brutally repressed two separate uprisings...

When he rose to be led back to the execution room at 6 a.m., he looked strong, confident and calm. Whatever apprehension he may have had only minutes earlier had faded...

Mr. Hussein was led up to the gallows without a struggle. His hands were unbound, put behind his back, then fastened again. He showed no remorse. He held his head high.

And so on...

If you watch either video, this bears little resemblance to the images seen on television screens or computer monitors.

Saddam hardly marched in with his head held high; instead, he looked somewhat nonplussed and nervous, understandably so, as he approached the platform.

The entire piece reads like a radical Sunni insurgent history book, circa 2008, and the editors of the Times should have recognized it.

Saddam may have faced his execution without tears or begging, but any review of the video shows the descriptions here to be propaganda.

The dictator has met his end, at the hands of the people he tormented for decades. He received more justice in a single day of his trial than he ever gave anyone during his reign of terror.

Without a doubt, all sides will attempt to create their own legends and propaganda from Saddam's execution. It's too bad that the New York Times has decided to join in the effort.

I wish people wouldn't do things that warranted death but, if I start to feel bad I'll just remember the Iraqi who had his hands sawed off with no anesthesia, or the small Iraqi children imprisoned, raped and killed, or the picture I saw of the Kurdish women dead with her baby clutched in her arms, or perhaps even the fact that he raised monsters like Uday and Qusay who committed atrocities also, even some that surpassed their fathers.