I won’t pretend that I’m conflicted about the hanging of Saddam Hussein - I’m not. I’m very, very clear about how I feel:
1. He deserved to die, and hanging was far too merciful; what he really deserved was to be tortured and then killed using methods that he and his spawn inflicted upon innocents.
2. This hanging was evil and should not have happened.
No, not because I necessarily oppose capital punishment. (Generally speaking, I do, but not for the reasons most people cite.)
This act was pure evil, and perhaps the final nail in the coffin of "America."
An illegal war, waged in violation of international law, human rights, and basic common sense. Illegal, indefinite detentions. Suspension of habeas corpus. Torture. Illegal wiretaps and spying. And now, a show trial in a kangaroo court, with the defendant, whose conviction and sentence were foregone conclusions, denied any actual appeal, and handed over to his political enemies to be executed as fast as logistically possible.
This is not America.
UPDATE: When I posted this, I had intended to include a comment on a particular headline, which spawned the title of this post. By the time I finished the intro, I was so outraged that I forgot it. But my original intent was to highlight the fact that, now that Bush has gotten his Oedipal execution, the MSM are still enabling the administration line.
The original flashpoint for my rage was this headline on the front page of the Web site of The New York Times:
"The Defiant Despot Oppressed Iraq for More Than 30 Years"
A little perspective, please, all you court stenographers. [And note: The headline has changed since yesterday. I haven’t seen the print edition; wonder what that says? Anyone out there with a copy, scan and post to the comments, please.]
Yes, he was a despot. Yes, he oppressed Iraq. So are and do scores of other dictators around the globe. But a few facts remain, however much the MSM try to help the administration bury them:
1. Of all the countries in that region, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq alone among them was a secular society. Note the past tense: Our "liberation" of a significantly westernized nation has resulted in the tyranny of radical religious extremists.
2. In Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, women participated fully in society - unencumbered by burqas, and unthreatened with rape and so-called "honor" killings. I remember a pre-invasion photo of the Baghdad stock exchange: The brokers were a mix of women and men, working together as professional equals, and the women wore trouser suits that would have looked right at home in any office in the U.S.
3. In Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were persona non grata. I don’t give a rat’s ass what this maladministration and the 101st FK Brigade would have us believe - bin Laden and Hussein hated each other, and there were no Al-Qaeda in Iraq until we opened the fucking door.
4. Whatever Saddam Hussein was - and it was obscene, criminal, evil - we helped create him. And not just "we": Oedipal Rage Target Daddy Bush; Other Priorities Chickenhawk Cheney; Secretary of War Crimes Rummy; the whole lot of ‘em. We were perfectly happy to use him, and to enable him, until Daddy’s approval ratings dropped to 35% - does anyone really think his invasion of Kuwait would have generated the response it did if Daddy hadn’t needed a nice tidy war to boost his re-election numbers?
And now, our national holiday gift is . . . execution porn.
This is not America.
