SOMETHING ELSE THAT ONCE WASN'T IMAGINABLE

Adnan said he would definitely watch if the trial is televised, as officials have promised.

"It should be entertaining, I'll laugh about him," Adnan said. Then he paused and added, "It's not in my nature to gloat over someone's (misfortune)."

Asked if Saddam should be executed, Adnan said no -- that would "only give him relief. It would be better if he is jailed; let him try what thousands of us have gone through."

But Adnan's mother, Fatma Ahmed interrupted: "I wish I could kill him with my own hands."

"He didn't have mercy on a mother, an old man. He is a despot, the biggest despot, Iraq will be much better without him," said Ahmed, 43.

Millions of other Iraqis understand well what Adnan is talking about. No punishment for Saddam can bring back the thousands of fathers, sons, sisters, daughters and mothers who died in torture chambers, on the streets of dusty Kurdish villages or on the battlefields in Iran.