On the first of January each year I think about the Roman god Janus, after whom the month is named. Janus was the two-faced god, perpetually looking both forward and back. As I sit here today and think about the end of 2006, my thoughts are dominated by the images and accounts of the execution of Saddam Hussein. I have no pity for Saddam; he was a brutal tyrant and mass murderer. Certainly, the world is no poorer for his absence. And yet, I am troubled by his end and by the reactions to it.

No lawyer can have watched Saddam’s trial without a sense that it was far from what any American would consider to be proper. The sequence of judges, the assassination of lawyers, the interference by outside parties made it a mockery of a trial as we understand such things. And that’s a true shame.

The fact of the matter is that no rational observer can believe that Saddam was not guilty of heinous crimes against his own people as well as his neighbors. A properly conducted trial would have inevitably led to that conclusion. Instead, all of the improprieties of the trial serve only to obscure Saddam’s guilt.

Similarly, while there can be little question that he deserved to die, the imposition of the death penalty will be seen as motivated solely by vengeance. He has gone from being a dictator to being a martyr, and the Middle East does not need any more martyrs. The haste with which his sentence was carried out only served to raise even more questions.

To my mind, however, as troubling as was Saddam’s trial and his sentence of death, far worse was the behavior of his executioners, taunting him at the end and, after he was dead, celebrating around his body. What does that say to the world about Iraqi – and American – justice? Would we here in the United States ever allow such behavior at an execution? I should hope not. How could we permit it to occur when, only a few hours before, the condemned was in our custody? And why was it necessary for the media to display grisly photographs of Saddam’s corpse?

Several years ago, the United States made a point of protesting our enemies’ public display of the bodies of American soldiers and media coverage of their deaths. Have we lost all sense of proportion as a result of the Iraq war?

The reassuring thing about the new year and the two faces of Janus is that while one face looks back, the second looks forward. While the past cannot be revised, the future is still to be written. No matter how sad the images of the past year may be, we can still hope that the year to come will be better. Certainly, I hope this will be the case.

Our country’s involvement in Iraq has led to the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis. It has brought about a tear in our social fabric which may take years to repair. It has led the world to question not only our moral authority but even whether democracy, at least as we export it, is something to wish for. I hope that the new year may bring a new beginning for us all, one marked by wisdom, courage and peace.