We had a few thoughts late last night on Saddam’s execution. Today we have a few more, as Josh Marshall reminds us why he’s likely both the best blogger and best writer in the business…
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The Iraq War has been many things, but for its prime promoters and cheerleaders and now-dwindling body of defenders, the war and all its ideological and literary trappings have always been an exercise in moral-historical dress-up for a crew of folks whose times aren’t grand enough to live up to their own self-regard and whose imaginations are great enough to make up the difference. This is just more play-acting.
These jokers are being dragged kicking and screaming to the realization that the whole thing’s a mess and that they’re going to be remembered for it — defined by it — for decades and centuries. But before we go, we can hang Saddam. Quite a bit of this was about the president’s issues with his dad and the hang-ups he had about finishing Saddam off — so before we go, we can hang the guy as some big cosmic ‘So There!’
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This is what we’re reduced to, what the president has reduced us to. This is the best we can do. Hang Saddam Hussein because there’s nothing else this president can get right.
What do you figure this farce will look like 10, 30, or 50 years down the road? A signal of American power or weakness?
Hat-tip for the pointer to the above to Joseph Cannon, who aptly adds:
And while we’re hat-tipping to the much beloved Cannon, we’ll point to his brief, yet enlightening summary today of how the United States handcrafted its own, ultimately self-defeating, legacy named Saddam Hussein.
Of course, most of those who have spent the last 6 years mindlessly salivating to the sound of their master’s voice will be unlikely to take the time to read it. Lest they take notice of anything to upset their creepy and cultish devotion to the notion of an infallible America. But the rest of us, with intellectual curiosity and honesty intact, can at least learn a thing or two about this whole nightmare having been the work of the self-same criminal crew who — as the last of their “papier-mache grandeur” flakes away, for now — cling pathetically to today’s barbaric murder of Saddam as some sort of “victory.”
Sadly — and shamefully — it is anything but.
I don’t know whether it’s apocryphal or not, but it’s been said that criminals, after their arrest, tend to fall asleep in their holding cell, while the innocent stay awake, yelling and screaming in protest.
This from RAW STORY’s coverage of today’s hanging of Saddam Hussein…
Why make an an Honest profit when you can making a “Killing” on KILLING . . . Huh george ?
Thank you for posting this excellent piece of writing. Yer voice and that of yer crew of guest bloggers have made this one of the most important blogs in America and the World Wide Web.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Hope you have a prosperous year and enough valued recognition to keep the fantastic words coming. Truth, justice, and the pursuit of happiness bebe!!!
I’m no more interested in seeing this video of Saddam then I am of seeing one of those videos of people dying or bums getting beat up. This is only something a curious teenage boy would be interested in.
Or, of course, (“wanted, dead or alive”, “deliver me the head of”), George W. Bush.
I watched some of the interviews today with Iraqis who had come to Canada. The majority were disappointed they didn’t get to see him on trial (which would have meant a couple more months) for the murders of their relatives. Why the rush to kill him they wondered. Most were not disappointed he was hung though.
“… send in the clowns …”
Dead men tell no tales!!! Fierce invalids are to be feared, but dead men?
Say, Dredd, do you by any chance have Switters’s e-mail address? Just wonderin’…
Noriega, bin Laden, Saddam, Pinochet and how many others have died in the last few years to finally cover up and end the Bush era of sleaze and criminal activity?
They didn’t call George Sr. “Poppy” for nothing!
How many murders avenge how many murders
and where does it end?????????????
The leadership in this country SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
America has been disgraced and no longer reflects MY AMERICAN VALUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See ya in Washington on the 27th.
Czaragorn #7
I don’t know who “Switters” is at the moment. Sorry.
Too bad – he loved to say “Send in the clowns…” See Tom Robbins for further clarificaion, “Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates” – try it, I bet you’ll like it!
The indication now is that the US Government did not hand Saddam over to the sovereign government of Iraq as they stated. But rather Saddam was handed over to the Mahadi Army of the radical Shiite Cleric Muqtada al_Sadr. His followers in his sectarian army/death squad proceeded to then hang Saddam. Which may explain why the execution took on the flavor of a mass lynching by an unruly gang. The general Sunni population was offended by the lynching and the fact it was done on a high Sunni religious holiday. This event rather than calming to Iraq may lead to an escalation of sectarian violence. Rather than justice, crude/raw revenge was allowed to take place. Bushco logs another major misstep. Under habitual chaos bushco cronies have managed to pilfer $200 billion dollars by privatizing Iraq’s economy. Carry on gwb/cheney – you and your friends are getting filthy rich off this escapade, while the American army and the Iraqi people continue to suffer.
Link to the full article.