Saddam is Dead, Long Live Saddam?
So Saddam is dead. Big fucking deal.
First of all, he was not tried at The Hague like any person who commits crimes against humanity should be. He was tried in Iraq, in a kangaroo court, for only a small fraction of the deaths he caused. For a vast majority of Iraqis and Iranians and Kuwaitis, his death and his punishment will carry no satisfaction. He was not tried for the crimes against them. Those crimes will forever go unpunished. Is that justice? No.
The people who collaborated and conspired with him, and gave him support, will not be brought out into the public eye, and brought to justice. Those from the USA, who during the Reagan Administration gave him aid and all his infamous WMDs, will escape unscathed. Rumsfeld and his ilk will go unpunished for shaking his hand and making deals to give him weapons, artillery, chemical and biological weapons.
Then there’s the video floating around the Internet. I must have been forwarded that about a dozen times already. People are celebrating in his death, morbidly and happily watching him die, and how thinking of how cool it is to watch another human die, and that he is gone. Remember Star Trek – The Next Generation, Encounter at Farpoint? Humankind, after supposedly progressing, regresses to celebrate medieval-like courts, and primitive justice? Is this where we are today? Are we regressing back to the the days of the wild west, the days of Millard Fillmore hanging people in Niagara Square for the enjoyment of thousands of people? This is where modern society has progressed to?
Saddam is a martyr now. As anyone knows, any leader is more dangerous dead rather than alive. While he’s alive, he can hold his followers together and direct them, while they look to him for guidance. Now that he’s dead, they will go for revenge for his death, and do what they think he would what them to do. He will not be guiding them, it will not be his will that is expressed, but an interpretation of his will. Expect the Sunni/Shi’ite violence to escalate in Iraq. Is that worth the price of his death?
The same day he was hanged, the 3,000th American soldier was killed in Iraq. Was that on page one, that milestone? No, it wasn’t. It wasn’t on page two, three, four or five. It wasn’t announced in the Buffalo News until the next day, in a small cover on the bottom of the front page. If you weren’t looking for it, you would have missed it. Think about that. Is that supporting our troops, forgetting about them, and the vast numbers of them that are no longer with us, the even more vast numbers who are physically and mentally scarred because of this war?
Think about all those families who have lost loved ones because of this misguided adventure in Iraq. Look at all those kids who lost their fathers or their mothers. Think of all those parents who lost their sons and daughters that are now buried in Arlington or wherever. Think of those who lost their brothers and sisters, friends and acquaintances. Tell me, does Saddam’s death make up for their loss? I don’t think so.
So instead of getting life in prison, in solitary, sentenced for all the crimes he has committed, a punishment worse than death, what does he get? Hanged, defiant to the end, mocking his executioners, because he knows what his death will bring. And to top it off, his body was given to his tribal elders, for a proper burial like any good Muslim should receive. Think about that.
Saddam is dead. As I said, big Fucking deal.
