Hanging in the New Year


So, 2007 will end with the heralding of a tyrant hung. Needless to say we have been inundated with news leading up to and following the execution of Saddam Hussein. Having worked the first half of this decade with murders and pedophiles, I have become a supporter of the death penalty. But, in the case of Saddam, it’s just not sitting well with me. I don’t deny the man’s evil and that his past deeds most certainly do warrant punishment. Perhaps what really bothers me is the political nature of the whole affair. Saddam ordered many deaths, though I don’t know whether or not he actually carried of them out personally, which does put some of the blame elsewhere. Though undeniably governed by fear, the executioners carrying out the bidding of any tyrant, be it Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot or Edi Amin, are more to blame for following than the one individual is for leading. Just as if I were to say I am the resurrected Jesus, most people would consider me nuts, and those who believed me to be at even a greater cerebral deficit. The simple fact is that a leader can only rule by terror if he/she has willing accomplices.

And let us not forget that United States was just as much an accomplice of Saddam as were his secret police and elite military units. Saddam was a convenient tool for the West during the Cold War, but when the novice went out on his own and represented a potential opposition to America, facts were fudged to justify a second invasion of Iraq. Perhaps if George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld were on the scaffold wearing matching nooses, then I would have felt a sense of justice in the world. After all, how many innocent Iraqi’s have been killed, not to mention the 3000+ U.S. Servicemen? Do we need to go back to the Reagan era to remember the Green Beret’s torturing in El Salvador? Ollie North and the Iran-Contra Affair ring any bells? Let’s call a spade a spade: Saddam was hung because he lost – there is not aspect of “justice” in this situation and to imply that there is only tarnishes the words meaning.

If ever I were to be a leader, I’d like to be like the Buddha and simply share what I have found to be true, but, in the same breath, asking my followers to discover their own truths as my perception and reality could be way out there. So many of us in the West feel sorry for poorer nations and give their hard earned dollars to offer some feel-good relief. So many still are oblivious to the fact that many poor countries are poor because of things like the IMF and the lifestyle lead in the Enterprise Culture of the West. We are equally deluded in our political vision of the world.

In conclusion, let my last message for 2006 be simple: live with your eyes open, see happiness for what it truly is (hint: it can’t be bought in a big box store or anywhere else), and remember if we all keep pissing in our collective global pool, sooner or later we’re going to taste it.

Peace.