This is a very difficult post to write. It is difficult to write because I have tremendous conflicting ideas regarding the butcher of Baghdad, and these ideas aren't only my own.
If you've been watching Bill Maher's show then you've noticed that it's been his running gag to joke about how the US should return Iraq to Saddam. Ha ha right? But as recently as two weeks ago, Maher has become more serious about the idea as the violence has escalated in Iraq. Bill and I are of the same mind on this one.
Is Saddam Hussein a bad man? There is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the most evil people on Earth. But to leave the subject at that is a fallacy, and might I add, its the very same fallacy that the Bush administration made when making their pre-war plans. We've fallen in love with the idea of freedom and Democracy without looking to the past and seeing what the role of a dictatorship is, and how, at times, the people want a dictator. Ironic when you think about it when you realize how much our own political debate is centered around the idea of strengthening executive power, thus creating a de facto dictator right here in the United States.
When you think of Iraq you have to realize that you're dealing with three factions: the Shiites, and the Sunni, and the Kurds. Now the Kurds are the smallest of the three factions, and largely oppressed by the other two. But when you think of the Shiites and Sunni, you should immediately link them to the Crips and the Bloods, two gangs which exist to destroy the other. Blame it on politics, blame it on religion, but this is the way these groups interact. Now ask the LAPD what would happen if they went to them and said, "ok, guys, um, we need you all to get along." First they'd laugh, and then they go on a rip roaring war. They wouldn't even respect the outsiders because they aren't even "bangers" or gang members, much like the US isn't Islamic. When Saddam was in power he held the two sides in check with terror and fear and then topped that off with a heavy slice of murder. When one stepped out of line Saddam was there with the rape rooms and the torture chambers all to, as we would say in the hood, "hold things down." When the US destabilized the region they put themselves in the precarious position of having to "hold things down," but couldn't use Saddam's methods. Now am I saying that the Shia and Sunnis aren't human, or don't have humane traits? Absolutely not. What I am saying is that humans go through phases. You have to learn to walk before you run. And you must first learn to overcome your hatred before you can love. This was not the right time for Democracy to be brought to them, to be forced upon them, and it's blowing up in our faces.
Today Saddam began his testimony, and as usual, the proceedings had to be halted as Saddam launched into a tirade, against the US, instructing the Iraqi people to cease fighting amongst themselves and attack their invaders. Describing the trial to one of my co-workers, I told him that Saddam has no respect for his captors because he's the OG in the country. He's held it down for so long, and understands his people so much more than the US that he feels that the conclusion is inevitable. Oh, there's no doubt that I'm sure whether it be by lethal injection, or a Jack Ruby, Saddam will be dead by New Years, but he knows that he will be a martyr. He knows that he fills that gap between what the Iraqis are and what they could be. Regardless of the trial he is that dark side, that ghost that haunts Iraq, that the US ignores and the insurgency embraces. And he will continue to be unabashed and unashamed until America turns into the shadows to deconstruct his necessary evil.
Milosevic would be laughing right now, but he's getting gang raped by demons.
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