I consider myself someone who is able to play devil's advocate in most every situation. Whether it's a situation of personal calamity, or something that doesn't involve me in the least, I take a bit of pride in the fact that I can look at the situation from the other point of view. I can be objective.
When I saw the video of Hussein being swabbed, mouth open wide, red-aflame from the flashlight, I saw the emptiness, sadness, tiredness in his eyes and I felt bad for him. Yes, of course: He's a murderer of the worst kind. He's a human of the worst kind. He deserves punishment in the extreme. And, yes, I understand that the anguish, humiliation, fear, suffering that he was feeling at that time doesn't come close to the angusih and suffering he and his torturers have forced countless Iraqis to endure.
Still, watching the video of that moment, I felt for the man. I guess seeing a Fallen Human, no matter how despicable he is, in such a moment of weakness, touches the humanity in me.
10 comments:
I felt I had no business watching his - or anybody's - medical exam. I can't see how showing us that served any purpose but to humiliate him. Though I probably would have conjured up more humiliating images given the words 'medical exam' and no pictures.
I'd say one purpose it had, besides humiliating him (which was no doubt part of the agenda), was to give Iraqis visual proof that 'we got him'.
By the way, is it just me, or was anybody else bothered by the way his capture was announced: 'ladies and gentlemen...we got him'? I don't know what it is about this phrasing, but it seems to me to be, I don't know, simplistic and childish? Glib? I can't put my finger on it, but it bugged me. Maybe it's just my anti-dubya feelings reading more into it than there is.
did you see the people on "The View" today. It was gross. They were showing pictures and video, pointing their manicured fingers, laughing at the various cuts and scrapes. jesus.
I don't know what's scarier. Saddam Hussein, the women of The View laughing at him, or that Dave m watches The View.
"i'm talking downtown!"
I can't stand to watch any one being humiliated. It is so Saddam! It is much what we claim that we are against. I see a values issue here. What ere the values of a reborn Iraq. If it is the old eye for an eye then all of this is for nothing. In this context, the death penalty is also a problem. I am not for a moment being soft on Saddam. Everything that is done has a meaning. Is it the meaning that will help or make things worse? How the Americans behave will set the course for the future.
I think you would be a good prospective juror during the selection phase for the defense team. This is proof that the science of jury selection is based on fact...some people over-stress their concept of "fair" to the point that no amount of credible evidence, even "beyond a reasonable doubt" will allow them to convict. It all comes from a self-concept of fairness gone amock.
i don't know anyone who goes further out of his way to miss a point than you, wayne.
the question isn't whether Saddam is guilty... he is. It isn't whether he was a Tyrant. He was. It's not about him. It's about us. Those qualities like fairness and empathy that you so easily deride as weak are at the heart of what we (or some of us anyway) believe make ours a different-- and better-- society than the one that drops grenades down a hole and asks questions later.
seriously, do you want to put him in a cage and parade him down main street iraq? and i'm not sayng he hasn't done worse to thousands of others. the thing is... he called those people he enemy too.
i contend that it's this thing that you call "fairness gone amock" is actually the price of civilization and the voice of reason. what you're listening for the voice of vengence. merry christmas.
To begin with, there actually is a study in jury selection.
Secondly, in response to your comments, the actual question posed and responded to was not in regards to guilt or innocence, rather, it was whether or not you would make a bad juror. My reply was it depended upon whose perspective was offered. Listen for the voice of justice - not vengence - for all those families who have been tortured, murdered and maimed. Put yourself in their shoes for one minute. There you will find the true voice of reason. Their calls will answer your posed question better then I.
To close, sincere wishes for a Merry Christmas to you, as well.
"Ladies and Gentlemen .. we got him!" Yeah, Rob, it did seem glib. And what everybody at CNN and the network news show and, of course, Dave's favourite program seems to forget is: We didn't doubt that the combined might of the U.S. and British military could find Saddam. That wasn't the point of being in Iraq.
They're prancing around, parading this sad little ordinary man as if that was why they got into the war. "We got him!" OK, buddy ... now, unless you're looking for those WMDs in his frigging mouth, get back out and do what you told us this war was about. You know, unless you were .. umm .. lying ...
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