It's never a proper cause for celebration when one human being puts an end to the life of another. It may be necessary at times, but it is never a cause for joy.
On one level, I can understand how Shiite and Kurdish Iraqiis, Kuwait and others would react with great joy on hearing the news that Saddam Hussein was dead and that any possibility of his return to power had been eliminated. The suffering that these people endured at the hands of Saddam during his reign can only be fully known by those who experienced it directly.
Still, it is a tragedy that the world arrived at a point where it was found necessary to put a man to death in order to serve the purpose of peace.
The death penalty may serve serve the purpose of justice, which in some cases is seen as a necessary precondition for peace. But the lesson we learn from the world's history is that violence, no matter how well-justified it may be from the perspective of justice, never brings a peace that is sustainable over the long run.
The 20th century began with "the war to end all wars," but the lesson of the 20th century was that this phrase is an oxymoron. War, by its essential nature, cannot bring an end to war. It cannot bring a peace that is sustainable over the long run.
There is talk of increasing the number of U.S. troops in Iraq, the idea being that this will bring about a situation where U.S. can effect a substantial withdrawal of troops later on. If military strategists say this will work, we can only hope they know what they are talking about. Still, I cannot escape the feeling that this "surge," as the the White House calls it, or "escalation," as the Democrats prefer to call it, will mark the beginning of an even more tragic chapter in the Iraq war.
2 comments:
Saddam deserved execution. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Chavez of Venezuela,Castro of Cuba, Ghaddafi of Libya, Asad of Syria, Ahmaghinejad of Iran and the ruling Mullahs shoud also be executed for others safety.
Wow! That's a pretty long list of people who should be executed. By what authority do we draw up such a list? When Saddam was in power, he was ruthless about killing those he believed posed a threat to his safety. I think we stoop to his level when we do the same in reverse.
The death of Saddam was necessary in the context of today's Iraq. But it was tragedy nontheless.
Post a Comment