Despite the ongoing turmoil in Iraq, a community of bloggers has managed to grow there, offering first-hand accounts of violence and grassroots opinion of Iraqi and US politics. In their response to the death sentence for Saddam Hussein, Iraq's former dictator, they frame the verdict within an intense, personal, highly subjective view of their country.

While President Bush hailed the Hussein verdict as "a milestone in the Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law," many bloggers are not as enthusiastic. Zeyad, a Baghdad Sunni currently studying journalism in New York, asks in his blog Healing Iraq: "A milestone for whom?"

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"It is a major achievement for Iraq's young democracy and its constitutional government," [Bush] said.

I say it's sad that a majority of Americans are still unaware that Iraq's "constitutional government" is a joke, and there is nothing that resembles democracy in Iraq today.

Warring factions control different parts of the country while the government is imprisoned in the Green Zone. U.S. and Iraqi forces are confined to their bases. Militias, gangs and death squads prowl at day and night unchallenged, if not abetted by Iraqi security forces. The tortured corpses of dozens of unfortunate Iraqis turn up in mass graves every morning. Services are in shambles.

Reconstruction is nonexistent, not even in safe regions of Iraq, even though hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent. Administrative corruption, smuggling, nepotism and cronyism are rampant. Local councils and religious parties have become entrenched in their positions and elections in the governorates have been suspended. The government threatens the press with prosecution if they dare criticise officials.

Iraqi professionals and the middle class have almost entirely left the country. 3,000 Iraqis flee to Jordan and Syria every day. 1.6 million Iraqis are refugees in their own country. Health conditions are worse than ever. The educational system has been interrupted by violence and corruption. All the previous "milestones" in Iraq were rushed to suit the purposes of American domestic politics.

"Riverbend," an Iraqi woman in her late 20's, expresses similar concerns in her blog, Baghdad Burning. In her entry dated Nov. 5, she sees the death sentence as a political tool for US elections, not an act of justice.

This is Bush's final card. The elections came and went and a group of extremists and thieves were put into power (no, no- I meant in Baghdad, not Washington). The constitution which seems to have drowned in the river of Iraqi blood since its elections has been forgotten. It is only dug up when one of the Puppets wants to break apart the country. Reconstruction is an aspiration from another lifetime: I swear we no longer want buildings and bridges, security and an undivided Iraq are more than enough. Things must be deteriorating beyond imagination if Bush needs to use the 'Execute the Dictator' card.

Iraq has not been this bad in decades. The occupation is a failure. The various pro-American, pro-Iranian Iraqi governments are failures. The new Iraqi army is a deadly joke. Is it really time to turn Saddam into a martyr?

Khalid Jarrar, an engineering student in Baghdad, is equally blunt in his blog Tell Me a Secret, and doesn't see the death sentence changing anything.

Saddam is nothing but a political card American politicians are playing against the American public.

The day of the fall of Baghdad was the day that Saddam stopped being important to me, he lost the power and became history....

And what exactly is his death gonna do to improve Iraq or life in Iraq? The sectarian tension or the security situation? The electricity or water? The curfews or the blocked streets? The puppet government or the dirty politicians? The loans of the billions stolen from Iraq as cash or oil since the invasion by Iraqi or Americans politicians?

Nothing at all.

Not all see the verdict as devoid of meaning, however. In a post the day before the Hussein verdict was announced, Iraq the Model, a largely pro-American, pro-regime-change blog, lauded the likelihood of a death sentence, which would make the former dictator "face the truth he's been avoiding."

The overwhelming majority of Iraqis are looking forward to seeing justice be served tomorrow which will give the fascist dictator, who brutalized and abused millions of people and their homeland for decades, give him what he deserves. We have been dreaming for such a day to come and it will be a true turning point, not only for Iraq but for the middle east, for it will be the first time a ruler gets paid back for what he'd done by a court of law.

Saddam's trial is a trial for all tyrants who oppressed their peoples and a tough warning to whose who think they have the right to control nations with fire and steel and get away with it. It is just a one trial in a series of trials yet to come; there are many more criminals in our land and they will eventually meet the same fate as Saddam's.

This is the beginning to build the foundations for the state of law and accountability we're fighting to establish, and the verdict we expect to come tomorrow will only shake the thrones of other middle east tyrants but will also send a strong message to some of the current mini-Saddam's of Iraq who will also have their own days someday.

The BBC reports that Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said Mr. Hussein's execution would take place by the end of this year, and that the decision would not be changed by any pressure.

One source of such pressure may be the Baath Party, which Hussein led. The Daily Times of Pakistan reports that after the sentencing, the outlawed party posted a statement on its website, warning that it would attack the Green Zone in Baghdad if Hussein was executed by the government.

"If president Saddam Hussein is executed ... the party will reinforce its siege against the Green Zone," which houses Iraqi government offices and the US embassy, said the party's command on its official site. It vowed to "use all possible means to destroy embassies, as well as the headquarters of intelligence and treacherous organisations".

"America and Iran, its ally, have detonated a bomb whose shrapnel will hit all the plotters and their agents in Iraq and outside," said the party statement, referring to Sunday's death sentence against the ousted president.

Still, at least one blogger thinks that Hussein's execution might end the Baathist insurgency. Iraqi Konfused Kid, a college student in Baghdad, writes that the verdict "could actually achieve good effects on the ground.

I think that the minute Saddam is executed many of the Baathists would stop and reconsider what they are fighting for, the Iraqi Baath party always will be a personality cult. Hell may break loose for the next couple of days but remember, we are already in hell, so bring it on."

The verdict did evoke some sympathy. A.Y.S., a Baghdad dentist, writes in his blog A Glance at Iraq:

Finally, [Hussein] was sentenced to death by hanging.

I was waiting impatiently for Saddam to show up, he should have stood up during reading the verdict, but as I expected, he sat down, squared his shoulders and refused to stand up. He looked astonished and apprehensive, then went on shouting after reading the verdict: 'Allahu Akbar, Ash AlSh'ab, Almaot llMuhtallen?.' ( God is great..long live the people..death to the occupiers).

I was watching it alone in my flat, honestly, tears flew from my eyes as the judge announced the 'death by hanging' sentence, I don't know why! Yes, he destroyed my country, killed the people, ruined everything, squandered our fortune, and dispossessed the people in addition to the uncountable crimes. But I feel sorry for him today!

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Feedback appreciated. E-mail Arthur Bright.