Saddam Hussein is about to become an Iraqi Piñata, a human being who
will have a rope tied around his neck and then dropped though a floor
and left to swing in the breeze until dead. It's a gruesome death,
one that is only legal in two of our 50 states in the United States.
U.S. President George W. Bush called the decision a "milestone in the
Iraqi people's efforts to replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule
of law." In other words, he's happy about it. In fact, many
conservatives are beaming about this, making one wonder if this is
more about American vengeance and less about Iraqi justice. The
Republicans are even using his conviction and subsequent death
sentence as an indication that they're tougher on terror than the
Democrats. Funny, it's not Osama they're killing, but oh well.
Americans have been in the dark on this trial, which is amazing. We
love trials so much we created an entire network, Court TV, to cover
these very things. Many of these sensational trials are wall-to-wall
coverage. So, the man that we spent half-a-trillion dollars to
depose, the man who is allegedly the worse thing to hit the world
stage since Hitler goes on trial, and we don't see any of it?
Is there anybody reading this that believes the Saddam trial was run
by and for Iraqis? Not even the Iraqis believe that. They, and many
of us, see this as nothing more than the American arm of justice
reaching in to Iraq and finally arranging for the death of man that
tried to kill our President's father.
As I heard the verdicts read in the dead of night, I wondered, why is
this guy dying again? Yes, I know about his crimes against the Kurds
and such. But, is this trial nothing more than the tax evasion
conviction of Al Capone? They couldn't try him for having weapons of
mass destruction, because he didn't have any. They couldn't try him
for reconstituting his nuclear program against mandates, because he
wasn't. In fact, Saddam is not guilty of one thing of which we
accused him prior to invading his sovereign nation and removing him,
it's sovereign dictator. No, once we got him out of the spider hole
the only thing we could get on him were past transgressions, things
we NEVER bothered to prosecute him on years after he committed the
acts. In fact, we did business with him after these unspeakable acts,
acts for which he now must hang.
My real problem with all of this is the rejoicing in the hanging of
human being no matter how despicable is completely incongruous with
the faith of our President, and allegedly the faith and moral values
of our nation. Hanging is a slow, painful death. It is not quick, it
shows no mercy whatsoever, no compassion. It is a method of choice in
countries with Sharia law such as Iran, Sudan and Saudi Arabia. Yes,
the U.S. is in their company, too, great friends, no? It is barbaric.
Just listen to the medical description of hanging from Wikepdia.com:
In judicial hangings, death is pronounced at cardiac arrest, which
may occur at times from several minutes up to 15 minutes or longer,
after hanging. During suspension, once the prisoner has lapsed into
unconsciousness, rippling movements of the body and limbs may occur
for some time which are usually attributed to nervous and muscular
reflexes. Where death has been caused by strangulation, the face will
typically have become engorged and cyanotic (turned blue through lack
of oxygen). There will be the classic sign of strangulation -
petechiae - little blood marks on the face and in the eyes from burst
blood capillaries. The tongue may protrude. Where death has occurred
through carotid artery obstruction or Vagal reflex, the face will
typically be pale in colour and not show petechiae. There exist many
reports and pictures that indicate a slow and agonizing death by
strangulation.
Well, that's cheery.
It's no secret George W. Bush uses the Presidency as a pulpit for his
religious beliefs and preaching. As he bashes gays, a woman's right
to choose, science, stem cells, he does it all in the name of his
Lord. I can't help but wonder what his Lord thinks of him. The "eye
for an eye" philosophy is from the code Hammurabi, it's downright Old
Testament. Now, I'm no expert, but I thought Christ was about
forgiveness. I thought it was all about "judge not, least ye not be
judged..." and "vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord." And what part of
"Thou Shalt Not Kill" do Christians not understand. They fight all
across our land to put the 10 Commandments in courthouses, on public
property. Unless there's another tablet with exceptions to the rules,
the commandments say "Thou Shalt Not Kill" period. The don't say,
"Thou, through judicial process, shall determine who is worth killing
and who is not, and upon exhaustive appeals, execute the evil doer..."
No, it's plain. Don't kill.
Now George never did pay attention to that. Over 150 people died at
the hands of the state when he was Governor of Texas. And at his
hands almost 3000 American soldiers have died in a desert and
somewhere between 400,000 and 600,000 Iraqis have died. Then there's
the people dying in the Darfur that he ignores. I guess he just
missed that commandment all together.
But more importantly, Saddam's execution makes Americans less safe
and makes a martyr out of him and we don't want either. Let the man
rot in the hell hole he created, Abu Ghraib, an old powerless man
with no mansions, no followers, no contact with the outside world.
Put him back in the equivalent of a spider hole with only one window,
so he can watch his Iraq be rebuilt without him. Take what he values
most, his way of life, not his actual life. Men like him don't fear
dying, they fear failing, they fear having nothing, they fear
anonymity. Strip him of his pride, his dignity, his life, but if
you're Christian, you don't kill him.
I could care less about this piece of human trash. But as I listen to
his verdict, I wonder why any American would rejoice. I mean, what
did he do to you? Truly, what did he do to you? Did he attack you on
9/11? Nope. Did he threaten to lob a nuclear bomb at you, and
actually have one to back it up? Nope. Did he sell a dirty bomb to
terrorists? Nope. Did he support Bin Laden? Nope, in fact, he hated
him. Did he cut off the oil and cripple our economy? Nope. So why
would you rejoice in his hanging?
Because he's an evil dictator. Well, what about the evil dictator in
the Darfur, going to go and try and hang him? What about all the
dictators in the world, going to go and get them on trial and kill
them, too? And what if, just what if, other nations deem our
President an out of control dictator destined to do more harm to the
world than good, a man who has caused the deaths of thousands and
want to put him on trial? What will you say then? What moral high
ground will you have on which to stand? None.
I do not condone the hanging of Saddam Hussein in my name, and make
no mistake, it is.
I do not condone this monkey trial of his in Iraq, when it should
have been at the World Court in the Hague. We will now make a man
immortal that should have faded away from the face of the Earth. When
his neck snaps so will the hope we have of winning many hearts and
minds in the region and away goes the "we're a compassionate, moral
and just nation" argument.
We invaded. We put a government in power. And now we've gotten a
guilty verdict against the man we deposed. He'll die. And then what?
Feel better? Everything back to normal? The world a better place?
Idi Amin died in exile in Saudi Arabia. Many deposed dictators who
did equal to or worse than Saddam die in exile and we never go after
them. But Saddam, no, he must swing from a tree, much like blacks in
the South in 1920s and 1930s. Billie Holiday was right...it's Strange
Fruit indeed swinging from that tree. Seems we just transplanted that
sentiment, that thought, that species of tree to a desert. And it's a
shame our diet still includes that very strange fruit and our leader
seems quite content to not only pick it, but to eat it up whole.
When a world leader rejoices in the hanging of another world leader,
it is not leadership, it is vengeance. When a Christian American
delights in the hanging of a Sunni Muslim, it is not justice, it is a
leftover of the Crusades. And when you kill an entity like Saddam
Hussein, you don't kill a man, you create a martyr.