If there is one constant in regard to the Iraq imbroglio, it is the fact that the neocons told big fat brazen lies to get the United States to invade and occupy the country and they continue to tell lies to keep us there.

It would seem that Bush and the neocons have told so many lies, engineered so many falsifications and illusions, that it is no longer considered news and many people take it for granted Bush and crew are pathological liars. Of course, this says something dreadful about the moral and mental condition of many Americans, apparently numbering in the millions, who simply shrug their shoulders and refuse indignation or even a mild emotional response when confronted with such murderous betrayal in their names.

From the caves of Afghanistan, where putative hijackers plotted to violate the very laws of physics on September 11, 2001, to the mercurial figure of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, said to be both a mastermind terrorist and a slow-witted dolt verging on retardation, we are spoon-fed one lie, exaggeration, and fairy tale after another, culminating in an incessant stream of deceit many of us no longer seem to even notice.

Thus, when the corporate media tells me Saddam was executed, I am inclined to believe they are full of it, simply parroting more lies and fomenting more trickery.

Most people will likely call me a paranoid nut case—in fact, I have grown quite comfortable with such derision and wear it as a badge of honor—but considering the way Bush’s “war” is going, at least here at home (while in Iraq, it is going as planned), it makes sense to render the killing Saddam into a media sideshow, never mind the crudity of skimasked executioners and gallows harking back to the grotesquery of Gibbet Hill.

In addition to sending a message, as the supposed murder of Uday and Qusay Hussein, grossly displayed in photos for all to see, sent a message, as did the much heralded and embroidered murder of al-Zarqawi—the hype on the latter lingered disgustingly for weeks, sort of like a pervasive stench—the idea here is let the American people know donating their sons and daughters, to say nothing of squandering billions of dollars, occasionally produces palatable results.

In a way, this is like the age-old practice of feeding a Christian or two to the lions in the Roman Coliseum, never mind political corruption and the ultimate failure of Rome’s Raubwirtschaft, or plunder and loot economy, was working corrosively behind the scenes at the very social fabric as the crowds soaked up bread and circuses. Saddam’s public execution is nothing if not a big distraction.

It does not take a lot of work, or memory, to conclude that it was not Saddam who went to the gallows.

It was only a couple years ago, soon after Saddam was allegedly dragged out of his spider hole—and, as it turns out, this is, as well, a transparently designed ruse—that his wife, Sajida Heiralla Tuffah, expecting to visit her caputred husband at a military base in Qatar, came to discover the man said to be Saddam was in fact not. “This is not my husband but his double,” Sajida angrily declared. “You think I do not know my husband? I was married to the man for more than twenty-five years!” It took a Russian, Maxim Pogodin, to report this for Pravda. Naturally, the story was almost completely ignored by our wonderful corporate media here in America.

“It is also possible to assume that Saddam has simply changed since the day of his sons’ deaths, June 24 2003,” Pogodin continues. “This however is highly unlikely. In case we believe Hussein’s wife, all DNA testing of the ex-Iraqi leader should be considered a mere fake. Overall, today there remain more questions then there are answers.”

Indeed, there are a lot of questions, and none of them will be answered sufficiently. For instance, some wonder how Saddam’s dental work changed over the period of a couple years, or how it is an Iraqi Army officer saw a U.S. Air Force transport fly Saddam Hussein out of Baghdad, or why is it several intelligence agencies believe Saddam jumped on a chartered transport from Baghdad to Minsk, Belarus, a rumor so persistent it lingered in the capitol for days, especially throughout the military command and among field officers.

These are questions that will never be answered, let alone addressed.

But never mind, us conspiracy nuts are prone to ruminate, much to the irritation of the more sane around us, for instance those who believe smoldering kerosene fires melt steel and Arabs wielding box cutters were able to make NORAD stand down.