Thoughts on the Death of Saddam
Some quick thoughts on Saddam`s execution:
-It should be noted that suicide bombings have dropped off to virtually nil in Israel since the removal of Saddam`s regime. Suggestive, no? Saddam was paying a king`s ransom (at least to the Palestinians it appeared so) to every family who sacrificed a child for Allah and to kill a Jew.
-During times of war it is customary to execute spies and partisans, as well as criminal junta leaders. Yet Saddam was the first person executed in this entire war, and even then the Coalition was not the executioner. Drudge reported (sorry, I can`t find the link now) that the State Department tried to get the Iraqi government not to carry out his sentence. This doesn`t surprise me, considering the overcautious way we have approached this entire war.
Why would they do that? Because they are afraid of angering the Sunnis, and are afraid of making martyrs. You cannot win a war in that fashion. Wars are won or lost when the people of one nation realize in their hearts that they are beaten. Fear of creating martyrs, or of an angry response by the public, will only keep the fires smoldering. There are sound military reasons for executing people during times of war; it is the experience of the military that executions are necessary to win. Postmodern thinking would have us believe that we can win by being nice, providing hot meals, and generally being pals with the enemy. We were told that Saddam was the enemy, not the Iraqi people. Well, many of the Iraqi people have been less than friendly, and the unfriendly ones need to be dealt with. The American media was furious at Abu-Ghraib, yet those killers wouldn`t have been there in any previous war because they would have been hanging by their necks from a bridge.
-Even then, Saddam was given ``the long hang`` rather than the traditionally arabic ``short hang``; his neck was broken so he died quickly, rather than dancing on the end of a rope for a half hour or so. This was a merciful end for a merciless man, and I suspect the Iraqi public should have seen Mr. Hussein twisting to his end-it would have been cathartic to a great many who had suffered under his tyranny, and it would have put our enemies on notice. Our enemies still do not believe we are serious.
-I`m not certain what will be done with his corpse, but my personal opinion is that he should be buried in a pigskin. Many Moslems believe it is impossible to go to heaven if your corpse is so handled, and this would alert them that we mean business and that Saddam will not get 72 virgins and a mule in paradise.
Wars are won or lost in the minds and hearts of the combatants, not in the actual fighting. We have been blundering about, fighting a ``kinder, gentler`` war which does nothing to end the conflict. Sherman called war hell, because it cannot be fought delicately and people suffer, sometimes terribly. As anyone who has had a major medical proceedure knows, often you cannot get healthy without some pain. It is better to remove a cancer with a knife now then to let it metastasize into something which can kill you. That is the lesson we need to learn.
-It should be noted that suicide bombings have dropped off to virtually nil in Israel since the removal of Saddam`s regime. Suggestive, no? Saddam was paying a king`s ransom (at least to the Palestinians it appeared so) to every family who sacrificed a child for Allah and to kill a Jew.
-During times of war it is customary to execute spies and partisans, as well as criminal junta leaders. Yet Saddam was the first person executed in this entire war, and even then the Coalition was not the executioner. Drudge reported (sorry, I can`t find the link now) that the State Department tried to get the Iraqi government not to carry out his sentence. This doesn`t surprise me, considering the overcautious way we have approached this entire war.
Why would they do that? Because they are afraid of angering the Sunnis, and are afraid of making martyrs. You cannot win a war in that fashion. Wars are won or lost when the people of one nation realize in their hearts that they are beaten. Fear of creating martyrs, or of an angry response by the public, will only keep the fires smoldering. There are sound military reasons for executing people during times of war; it is the experience of the military that executions are necessary to win. Postmodern thinking would have us believe that we can win by being nice, providing hot meals, and generally being pals with the enemy. We were told that Saddam was the enemy, not the Iraqi people. Well, many of the Iraqi people have been less than friendly, and the unfriendly ones need to be dealt with. The American media was furious at Abu-Ghraib, yet those killers wouldn`t have been there in any previous war because they would have been hanging by their necks from a bridge.
-Even then, Saddam was given ``the long hang`` rather than the traditionally arabic ``short hang``; his neck was broken so he died quickly, rather than dancing on the end of a rope for a half hour or so. This was a merciful end for a merciless man, and I suspect the Iraqi public should have seen Mr. Hussein twisting to his end-it would have been cathartic to a great many who had suffered under his tyranny, and it would have put our enemies on notice. Our enemies still do not believe we are serious.
-I`m not certain what will be done with his corpse, but my personal opinion is that he should be buried in a pigskin. Many Moslems believe it is impossible to go to heaven if your corpse is so handled, and this would alert them that we mean business and that Saddam will not get 72 virgins and a mule in paradise.
Wars are won or lost in the minds and hearts of the combatants, not in the actual fighting. We have been blundering about, fighting a ``kinder, gentler`` war which does nothing to end the conflict. Sherman called war hell, because it cannot be fought delicately and people suffer, sometimes terribly. As anyone who has had a major medical proceedure knows, often you cannot get healthy without some pain. It is better to remove a cancer with a knife now then to let it metastasize into something which can kill you. That is the lesson we need to learn.
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 5:53 AM
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