The execution on Saturday of Saddam Hussein may have marked the passing of one of the vilest tyrants of the late 20th century. But the way in which the Baghdad hangmen turned it into a public lynching - disseminated around the world courtesy of a mobile phone camera and the internet - will have profound consequences for Iraq, and for the Middle East and those powers that so recklessly meddle in its politics.

While President George W. Bush may hail the dictator's demise as another "milestone" on Iraq's path to democracy, it looks just as likely it will turn out to be another paving stone on the road to the sectarian hell into which Iraq is descending.