© 2006 by Spider Robinson; all rights reserved.
Saddam Hussein was hung tonight. The question is, was he well hung?
Let’s think about that. Review the charges, please.
• He was elected, by a majority in a bitterly divided country, under highly questionable circumstances.
• He openly persecuted large minorities within his nation, denying them disaster relief.
• He kept order by overwhelming force and brutal persecution of dissenters.
• He believed it was okay for the state to torture its enemies in its national interest.
• He wrecked his nation’s economy, though it was wealthy, and made it an international pariah.
• He had horrible judgment about which countries he could get away with invading, and did so on the most flagrantly transparent of pretexts.
• He picked incompetent generals, hanging his own brave troops out to dry.
• He was pigheaded, surrounding himself with yes-men and ignoring all advice, even when it was clear he was wrong.
• And he despised al-Qaeda.
Does all this this sound like any other modern head of state you can call to mind?
I am not suggesting for a moment anyone should impeach and hang the President of the United States. It’s not as if he had pathetic sex on government property or anything. I’m just wondering exactly how we’re going to get him off, if these are the standards being used to execute national leaders these days. Aren’t we lucky there’s no other country around big and mean enough to make us live up to their superior moral code?
I guess Dubyah will use the same lawyers and public relations firm that Pol Pot and Idi Amin used to help them die of old age in luxury surrounded by their friends and loved ones, after butchering millions. Literally butchering, in Amin’s case.
But meanwhile, at least we got the real beast, Saddam.....we can all breathe easy, now. Surely this finishes off al-Qaeda.
Too bad the sumbitch took the secret location of the Weapons of Mass Destruction to the grave with him, though. Ours are getting old.
