the execution of saddam hussein
i know i'm a couple weeks behind schedule on this topic, but i feel the need to get something off my chest. not many will agree. my words may be strong, but they come from a soul desperately searching to make sense of a world going mad, so please be patient with me.
on december 30th, it was a normal night like any other. i was delivering pizzas, listening to music and hoping for big tips. people don't tend to tip as good right after Christmas for some reason...i remember the feeling i had as i turned on the radio to the news that saddam hussein would be executed that night. it was the same feeling i had when the towers collapsed on september 11th. it was the same feeling i have every time there is a new crisis in the middle east. it's the same feeling i have when i hear of another senseless murder. it's the same thing i feel when i drive through north central regina. it was a feeling of hopelessness. it was a hopelessness so deep and dark that i wanted to just give up. i wanted to throw in the towel and sink into myself, because it would be so much easier to do that. it would be so much easier to not care about the situation the world is in and focus only on myself. i don't understand people who do this. that's not means as an insult, just a statement of fact. i can't do that. i can't shut myself off to what's going on. most who know me would know that i am a hopeful guy that sees a brighter future ahead for the world, but on this night, i felt sick in my heart in a way i had never experienced before.
why? your maybe wondering why the execution of a terrible man gets me so upset. after all, it was the just thing to do. this man has been behind some of the most attrocious acts against humanity, and he was simply getting what he deserved. the world was getting justice. wasn't it? is this what justice looks like? wikipedia says justice is the ideal state of humanity. is a man being hung from the gallows and shown dead on national television the ideal state of humanity? are people in the street cheering and celebrating the death of another human being the ideal state of humanity? what i want to know is where the ideal state of humanity is in all of this.
was the attack on 9/11 just? no, or course not. was the response in afghanistan. some would say yes, but seeing how terrorism is more prevalent today than it ever was, i would lean towards no. was the invasion of iraq just? no. every reason given to the people for going to war has shown to be false, and the execution of saddam hussein does not change the fact that the people were sold this war through deception. i would say rather that it was a grave injustice. so that brings us to saddam hussein. was his execution just? this is why i feel sick inside. this is why i feel hopeless. when is this sick notion that the death of more human beings will bring justice to the world. what makes me even sicker is that most of this is done in the name of God. they bomb us and we bomb them, all because our picture of God and the world is different from thiers. there is something wrong with that picture. we think we are fighting for noble causes and that makes it just in the eyes of God, but when will the murder of God's children (yes i'm talking about muslims, christians, and people like saddam hussein) ever be just? i know i can't expect the world to live by the same idea of justice that Jesus had, but when did we lose this beautiful picture he had of an ideal state of humanity? His justice was about feeding the hungry, giving to the poor, offering hope to the hopeless, freeing the oppressed, setting the world to rights. to me, the picture of Jesus and the picture of justice today do not match up. we are not setting the world to rights. we are destroying it.
this is why i feel hopeless with the execution of saddam hussein. when will the world be set to rights? right now, it seems the farthest thing from what justice really is. bear with me through my hopelessness. to those who disagree with my thoughts, in no way did i intend to hurt you or belittle your opinion. this is just where i am at in trying to figure my life out.
on december 30th, it was a normal night like any other. i was delivering pizzas, listening to music and hoping for big tips. people don't tend to tip as good right after Christmas for some reason...i remember the feeling i had as i turned on the radio to the news that saddam hussein would be executed that night. it was the same feeling i had when the towers collapsed on september 11th. it was the same feeling i have every time there is a new crisis in the middle east. it's the same feeling i have when i hear of another senseless murder. it's the same thing i feel when i drive through north central regina. it was a feeling of hopelessness. it was a hopelessness so deep and dark that i wanted to just give up. i wanted to throw in the towel and sink into myself, because it would be so much easier to do that. it would be so much easier to not care about the situation the world is in and focus only on myself. i don't understand people who do this. that's not means as an insult, just a statement of fact. i can't do that. i can't shut myself off to what's going on. most who know me would know that i am a hopeful guy that sees a brighter future ahead for the world, but on this night, i felt sick in my heart in a way i had never experienced before.
why? your maybe wondering why the execution of a terrible man gets me so upset. after all, it was the just thing to do. this man has been behind some of the most attrocious acts against humanity, and he was simply getting what he deserved. the world was getting justice. wasn't it? is this what justice looks like? wikipedia says justice is the ideal state of humanity. is a man being hung from the gallows and shown dead on national television the ideal state of humanity? are people in the street cheering and celebrating the death of another human being the ideal state of humanity? what i want to know is where the ideal state of humanity is in all of this.
was the attack on 9/11 just? no, or course not. was the response in afghanistan. some would say yes, but seeing how terrorism is more prevalent today than it ever was, i would lean towards no. was the invasion of iraq just? no. every reason given to the people for going to war has shown to be false, and the execution of saddam hussein does not change the fact that the people were sold this war through deception. i would say rather that it was a grave injustice. so that brings us to saddam hussein. was his execution just? this is why i feel sick inside. this is why i feel hopeless. when is this sick notion that the death of more human beings will bring justice to the world. what makes me even sicker is that most of this is done in the name of God. they bomb us and we bomb them, all because our picture of God and the world is different from thiers. there is something wrong with that picture. we think we are fighting for noble causes and that makes it just in the eyes of God, but when will the murder of God's children (yes i'm talking about muslims, christians, and people like saddam hussein) ever be just? i know i can't expect the world to live by the same idea of justice that Jesus had, but when did we lose this beautiful picture he had of an ideal state of humanity? His justice was about feeding the hungry, giving to the poor, offering hope to the hopeless, freeing the oppressed, setting the world to rights. to me, the picture of Jesus and the picture of justice today do not match up. we are not setting the world to rights. we are destroying it.
this is why i feel hopeless with the execution of saddam hussein. when will the world be set to rights? right now, it seems the farthest thing from what justice really is. bear with me through my hopelessness. to those who disagree with my thoughts, in no way did i intend to hurt you or belittle your opinion. this is just where i am at in trying to figure my life out.
posted by xblairx @ 6:31 PM
8 Comments:
At 7:20 AM ,
Anonymous said...
Yep I went to www.saddamhusseinsgrave.com
At 7:20 AM ,
Anonymous said...
yep went to www.saddamhusseinsgrave.com
At 10:18 PM ,
Jordan said...
Nice post, man. I totally agree with you that justice was not served by the murder of Saddam. I would go so far as to say all executions are basically state-sanctioned murder. It blows my mind that this sort of thing still goes on in this day and age...
At 8:47 AM ,
John, Angie and the kiddos said...
I think Justice is served best in the gallows except I don't.
John
At 2:05 PM ,
Jordan said...
John,
I couldn't agree with you more, except I do.
At 1:49 PM ,
Chris & Rachel said...
I walked through Landstuhl Army hospital in Germany shortly Saddam died. Seeing soldiers that had been air lifted from Iraq to Germany, in the hopes of saving them.... who suffers more? The Iraqis whose family members died at the hands of Saddam? Or those left behind to fight against his supporters? Just a thought.... After all, I am a soldiers wife.
At 5:29 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Blair,
I have thought these same things, but I was wondering if you would share what could have been done instead of what happened.
Brian
At 8:34 AM ,
xblairx said...
rachel,
hey rachel. i don't claim to even begin to understand how that must feel for you and your husband. i hope i never come across as arrogant in my criticism of the war or the way it is being handled. my criticism goes directly to the political powers and the way they have handled iraq, and even as we might disagree, i hope you never feel like i am attacking you or any of the soldiers who are in this situation. so, please be gracious with me and know that in no way do i intend to insult those who are putting their lives on the line everyday.
i don't really know how to answer your question. i don't necessarily think one suffers more than another, although i am much more far removed from the situation than you obviously are, so i understand if you feel differently. i can't imagine what it would feel like to lose a husband, wife, or child who was fighting against supporters of an evil man. that being said, i can't imagine what it would feel like to have that same evil man order my family to be killed. i don't think one necessarily trumps the other. they are both horrible occurences. the only thing i would venture to say is that maybe the families of those who were killed by saddam didn't voluntarily sign up to go and fight. does that make sense? the iraqi people who were killed by saddam had no choice in the matter. just my thoughts, although i don't know if it's possible to answer that one right.
brian,
well, this is a loaded question that would take days to right. as far as saddam goes, i think there is much that could have been done differently. first off, they did not have to kill him. i know what he did, but i will never support the loss of a human life with more loss. it doesn't solve anything. as we already see, he is a martyr to his cause, and more will die in the long run because of his death. if he was kept alive in a maximum security prison for the rest of his life, would that not suffice? don't you think that would be more humiliating to him than the martyr's death he was given? and i don't even say to keep him in prison because i want him humiliated. i say that because it is the right thing to do. we should not stoop to his level. we should turn the other cheek. i know i can't expect the world to necessarily live by this, but this is simply what i would have done differently. as far as the war goes, i don't even know where to begin in talking about how it could have been handled differently. it could have been avoided altogether had we not been lied to and manipulated by the president and his staff. there was no reason to go there in the first place, and now there have been more deaths than saddam hussein has ever caused. if they really believed something needed to be done in iraq, they should have used the UN and had their full support. there was little effort at diplomacy, and even when saddam finally let them search for WMD, none were found. there was no reason to start this war.
and we can justify it and say it is better now that he is no longer in power, but does that justify the lies that put us there in the first place? does that justify the innocent iraqis which became 'collateral damage' of this war? i don't think so. some might, but i don't. dare i even venture to say that i see little difference between saddam hussein and george bush? again, most people would be shocked that i even make the comparison, but i see many similarities in their disregard for human life and the will of the people they rule over. they both cared/care little what others think of their policies and plans. that is the tip of the iceberg on that comparison, but i don't want to say more, lest i get shipped off to guantanamo.
(this may be the part where i need some grace, as my hatred and frustration for george bush runs as deep as many others for saddam.)
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