SADDAM - SWINGIN' HARD
I get my title from a term we musicians use when the music is feeling especially good; it gets your fingers snapping, your feet tapping, and your overall soul "into" the music of the moment - it swings - and it "swings hard" if it's really good.
Like many of you, I still have this image of Saddam Hussein "swinging" from the end of a rope several months back in my head. Justice was served; perhaps in barbaric fashion. Rightly though, the U.S. left the administration of legal trial and final justice for Saddam in the hands of the Iraqis and their cultural dictates.
What has happened since? A "surge" in U.S. troop levels, for one, which has not seemed to have had much effect on quelling the ever-increasing sectarian, religious violence and mindless killing of Iraqi civilians, police officers, and virtually everyone involved in trying their best to make something of this fledgling "democracy." It is so sad that all of the blood and treasure invested in this "nation building" experiment by the U. S. (right or wrong in its premises - and I believe those premises are wrong, for the record) has seemed to come to naught. I've never seen more mindless madness, murder, and mayhem committed in the name of religion in my lifetime. What an existential tragedy... Our troops, unfortunately, cannot kill enough hate-filled lunatics fast enough to stem the tide of relentless suicide killers, roadside bombers, et.al. Reminds me of the pest control business - trying to rid a property of termites, crickets, spiders, roaches and other assorted nefarious bugs is a daunting task. And the U.S Armed Forces, no doubt about it, are in the "pest control" business worldwide.
This whole spectacle reminds me of a conversation I had with my brother when this conflict had just begun back in 2003. I stated that it reminded me from the outset like Yugoslavia under Marshall Tito, and that the U.S. may indeed (strange as it may have seemed back in 2003) rue the day that it decided to get rid of Saddam. And that little prophecy seems to be unfolding before our eyes. Might we one day pine for the "old days" of a more stable Iraq under the nefarious and unscrupulous dictator? Might it have been better to just let them deal with their own problems in their own medieval way and stay out of the mess altogether?
I recently saw my brother (we love to talk politics, religion, and all the juicy stuff) for a family matter, and reminded him of our conversation. He replied exasperatedly: "Yeah - we got rid of one lunatic; now we have to deal with about 30 million more..."
"Nuff said..."
TTC
Like many of you, I still have this image of Saddam Hussein "swinging" from the end of a rope several months back in my head. Justice was served; perhaps in barbaric fashion. Rightly though, the U.S. left the administration of legal trial and final justice for Saddam in the hands of the Iraqis and their cultural dictates.
What has happened since? A "surge" in U.S. troop levels, for one, which has not seemed to have had much effect on quelling the ever-increasing sectarian, religious violence and mindless killing of Iraqi civilians, police officers, and virtually everyone involved in trying their best to make something of this fledgling "democracy." It is so sad that all of the blood and treasure invested in this "nation building" experiment by the U. S. (right or wrong in its premises - and I believe those premises are wrong, for the record) has seemed to come to naught. I've never seen more mindless madness, murder, and mayhem committed in the name of religion in my lifetime. What an existential tragedy... Our troops, unfortunately, cannot kill enough hate-filled lunatics fast enough to stem the tide of relentless suicide killers, roadside bombers, et.al. Reminds me of the pest control business - trying to rid a property of termites, crickets, spiders, roaches and other assorted nefarious bugs is a daunting task. And the U.S Armed Forces, no doubt about it, are in the "pest control" business worldwide.
This whole spectacle reminds me of a conversation I had with my brother when this conflict had just begun back in 2003. I stated that it reminded me from the outset like Yugoslavia under Marshall Tito, and that the U.S. may indeed (strange as it may have seemed back in 2003) rue the day that it decided to get rid of Saddam. And that little prophecy seems to be unfolding before our eyes. Might we one day pine for the "old days" of a more stable Iraq under the nefarious and unscrupulous dictator? Might it have been better to just let them deal with their own problems in their own medieval way and stay out of the mess altogether?
I recently saw my brother (we love to talk politics, religion, and all the juicy stuff) for a family matter, and reminded him of our conversation. He replied exasperatedly: "Yeah - we got rid of one lunatic; now we have to deal with about 30 million more..."
"Nuff said..."
TTC
posted by thoughtful conservative at 4:42 PM
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