Saddam is Dead
Today we executed a near 70 year old man.
A man, once of great power, whom we captured cowering in his underwear in a hole in the ground.
A man who, without a doubt, was committed to evil and performed great sins against humankind...
And yet a man who had been neutralized.
A man who could have spent his life imprisoned for his crimes.
Today, we executed a near 70 year old man...
For crimes committed by countless others whom we continue to support and keep in power
Because it is expedient to our wishes.
We executed him, like we execute so many others in our own country
Because we do not believe in God, despite our protestations to the contrary.
No... we do not believe in God.
We believe in vengeance and retaliation.
We believe in political expediency.
We believe in photo opportunities.
We believe in our own righteousness.
We believe in the gallows because we do not believe in grace.
We believe that death solves the problem because we do not believe that Christ overcame death...
Or that, if he did, he did so only for a privileged few that doesn't include Muslims.
Especially near 70 year old Muslims caught cowering in their underwear in a hole in the ground because he realized that the gig was up and vengeance was at hand.
Saddam went to the gallows with a copy of the Quran in his hands.
I wonder if the executioner did the same... carried to the gallows whatever holy book gives him comfort and strength.
I wonder if our Christian president bothered to take up his Bible and pray at all yesterday while awaiting news of the death his machinations had wrought against a near 70 year old man.
Today I got a note from a friend wondering if we ought to pray for Saddam in church this weekend.
Pray for your enemies and those who persecute you.
Those who live by the sword shall perish by it.
Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
But what do we care. The biggest fear we have when it comes to executing a near 70 year old man is whether his death will lead to more violence against us.
Or whether, in an age of lies and deceit, we dare show a video of the execution to the world for fear people won't believe he's really dead. How graphic should the news dare to be?
It really is, after all, just a question of taste.
An evil man has died on the gallows, but a man nonetheless.
At our Christian hands.
And in the scheme of things, the cycle of violence continues with no end in sight...
Because we do not trust God nor God's justice.
Our own petty tyrant is more convincing than the petty tyrant just dispatched.
We will hear about our savage victim over the next several days:
How afraid he was.
How resigned he was.
How pathetic he was.
"I saw fear... he was afraid." "It was strange... he just gave up."
He was near 70 years old.
And his death will not quench our leader's thirst.
Nor ours.
Just another dead Muslim.
Caught in a hole in the ground in his underwear.
And I swear...
I just heard someone laugh.
technorati tags:saddamhussein, justice, vengeance