I think our government really wanted this to be an historic and moving event. You know … we the good guys in white hats kill off the bad guy in the black hat. After which all of the world would sing hymns of praise. Women and children would be dancing in the streets of America and the war in Iraq would finally make sense.
Yet that’s not really what happened. This event that our president expected to rock the world came and went with more of a whimper. At least here in the states. While I was out with friends last night, very few people even knew the execution had happened. Sadly, even I was oblivious. Sure I knew the inevitable was coming, but the rushed hanging seemed to mean so little after all.
So why did we kill this man? To prove a point. What was that point? No one really knows anymore. In March 2003 as America declared war on Iraq, the spin doctors of Washington tried to convince us that doing away with Saddam would solve all of the world’s problems. That this man alone was solely responsible for terrorism’s evil reach. Not long after, the truth became painfully clear.
Even as this execution hit the world news, the violence in Iraq continued further confirming that this war is a failed venture that began with a lie. The need to punish Saddam was lost a long time ago and replaced with late-night jokes about his trail. The democracy our president and his cronies forced on Iraq is very different from the one we have here. After all, if ours was a true democracy, Bush would not be president.
Ultimately, this execution revealed just one thing to me. This ‘Stay the Course’ mentality is the true evil. Yeah I know, that’s not an earth-shattering revelation. But what else does it mean? What else has it proven? If you can tell me, please do. Oh sure, the people in Iran are happy since this man waged war on them. Then again, America backed that invasion.
Yeah, maybe those in Kuwait are happy for the same reasons. Then again it has been historically proven that Kuwait was stealing oil from under Iraqi soil. So, while I’m not in favor of any declaration of war, that invasion could be justified. Not to mention the fact that, in our efforts to help Kuwait, we pulled out as soon as the oil was taken out of the equation.
Even Iraqis who either supported or feared Saddam were unusually restrained in their reactions. Since the American invasion plunged the country into all out civil war, they have other things to worry about. Saddam came to symbolize the need for war only in the eyes of the American government. The cracking of that veneer has caused Bush and others to take on the role of Pontius Pilate saying it is now somehow up to the people of Iraq to fix what we broke.
So again I ask you; if this all-important execution didn’t even cause any passionate reactions in the streets, let alone solve anything, what has it proven? When will this end? I don’t care if it’s a vicious dictator or a kid in uniform or a mother and child. Who else needs to die to justify a mistake?
