Saddam: hanged in a "hostile environment"?

Serenity Now

I can't believe some otherwise normal people are complaining that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's execution by hanging was carried out in a "hostile environment". How much more hostile can your environs get than this: surrounded by vengeful roughnecks who have you tied up and are fixing to hang you as quick as they can get the noose on you? Would the drop have been been any more unpleasant for Saddam had one of his executioners spit on him?

Bob Murphy, ABC News senior vice president, upset that cell-phone videos have surfaced that show Hussein exchanging taunts with his executioners, is quoted in the WaPo:

It's a different angle on the same event, It has much more audio and ambient sound. They're clearly taunting him. It's a much more hostile environment than you get from watching the video this morning. The earlier video makes it seem much more passive and serene than it actually was.

Passive and serene? Get a grip. There is no such thing as a passive or serene hanging. Or, for that matter, a passive and serene execution by lethal injection. The last time I was there, prison was short on serenity and passivity as well. I don't think it is intended to be.

They don't call it punishment for nothing. Saddam could have had worse, and probably would have if it hadn't been for the US.