Saddam Execution

I just watched the Saddam execution video, and read a large number of comments on a certain site.

Have I really kept my head in a hole my entire life?  The sentiments I read expressed were absolutely horrifying.  I have never seen or heard such pure hatred and disgust.  Like the executioners, many took real delight in the video, lamenting only that the video was of poor quality.  Some said they wished the rope had been shorter so he would have suffocated instead of having his neck broken.  Some said he should have been burned.  He should have been buried alive.  He should have been dipped in a boiling vat of oil.  He should have been tortured for days by having his finger nails pulled out and spikes driven into him.

Reading it gave me shivers.  Is this what people have in their hearts?  Something they keep buried until they take advantage of the anonymity of the internet?  And it isn't all directed at Saddam.  It also burns between posters.  One hates all Iraqis, proclaiming their stupidity and the superiority of America.  Another hates Bush, saying he and Blair should be strung up next to Saddam.  Another spouts off the number of Americans killed in 9/11.  Another retorts with the number of Americans killed in the Iraq war.  There is no civility.  There is no understanding.

Americans enjoy a fantastic amount of freedom, including the right to believe whatever they choose.  This right is precious to all of us.  Somehow, I thought that we as individuals were more mature than this.  Are we really so far away?  Do we still assign value to a person based on their national heritage?  Their skin color?  Their net worth?  What about their crimes?  Does a person carry less intrinsic value once they have stolen a pack of gum?  What about a car?  And if they've murdered?  At what point does the killing of anyone for any reason become an occasion worth celebrating?  I support justice, and I support the safety of the Iraqi people.  I believe Saddam was a terrible man, by whom many great injustices were inflicted upon his people.  Should he have been executed?  Perhaps.  Should he have been executed while being mocked by the Iraqis assigned to the task, wearing ski masks and praising their prophet for the chance to kill him?  Absolutely not.  Should we find elation in a video of a man being humiliated and executed.  Absolutely not.

In a war such as we now find ourselves, there is no doubt in my mind that people have strong emotions tied to the various schools of thought.  I know many people hate the war.  I know that passion can burn much hotter than reason.  I naively thought that people would choose to be objective.  I honestly did not know how much misunderstanding and evil is within people.

My major upset is not that people desired the death of Saddam.  Many feel that death was the only form of justice befitting a mass murderer, and I am in no position to debate the ethics of a death penalty.  My upset is why they desired this execution.  It's not the security of our nation.  It's not the democratization of Iraq.  It's not even justice.  It's hatred.  An execution for justice yields a sense of propriety and stability, not one of bliss.  It's hatred.  Hate is man's best catalyst and his worst compass.  It produces an unimaginable compulsion to act and no protection from making the act destructive.

The manner in which this execution was carried out is now being called a sectarian lynch.  I am repulsed most, however, by the reaction I have seen among our fellow Americans.  This reaction has been a result, not of empathy for a people, but of hatred for a man.  More than a dictator has been put to death.

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