1) Hussein, despite his image as a beast, is all too human. This is rather frightening, as dictators are not the monsters or animals we often believe they are, they are people who made conscious decisions to commit acts of evil. We can’t really explain away their actions in this manner.

2) The article in the Sun newspaper summed it up brilliantly with the headline ‘The Tyrant’s In His Pants’. Hussein has gone from being a powerful and ruthless dictator, to a bedraggled but defiant captive, to a pathetic old man who has nothing left. The image of Hussein grumbling because his guards haven’t given him Cheetos would have been rather surreal some years back. I think he’s experienced so much upheaval that he’s resigned to his fate. He hasn’t got anything else to lose. I sure as hell don’t feel sorry for him, it’s just interesting to notice the transformation.