Saddam and Wyatt Earp

Saddam Guilty and Sentenced: May Be Hanged in 30 Days

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At this point I am dispassionate about the verdict on Saddam and his pending demise. I no longer have the glee that I might have had some time ago. He is guilty of so many atrocities that I have no pity on the man, yet at least he has called, through his attorney, for no revenge or bloodshed on his behalf. The reaction to the verdict does seem to be mild so far, so are we left with the Butcher of Baghdad doing something Lincolnesque in his final days on earth? Well, that’s a stretch.

Implications of the Rule of Saddam

It appears now, in hindsight, that Saddam was a strongman who kept Iraq together as a country. He corralled and tamed the Kurds, the Shiites, and the Sunnis into a functioning nation. Yes, things were better for Iraqis when he was in charge. People could lead normal lives, go to the market, sit in cafes, visit nightclubs, walk around. Yes, those were better times. On the other hand, what was the price for those better times?

In order to keep the various tribes, sects, nationalities and political factions in line, Saddam had to be vicious. Threats, arrests in the middle of the night, rape, torture, murder and mass murder, the use of poison gas. This is one way to do it. Sort of like the mafia, only unimaginably worse.

So now, the Iraqi’s are trying to do without a strongman. They’re attempting to keep this quarreling nation together through democracy. Can they do it? Who knows? The place is kind of like the Wild West in America, which had to be tamed by strongmen called gunfighters who came down on the side of the law, but who skirted the law to “get their men” and impose order. Some of the heroes of the Wild West were unsavory characters, like Wyatt Earp. They shot and killed people without reading them their rights.

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Slowly, America transitioned, and it was a long transition, to the rule of law and habeas corpus and all that. Even until recently, we had a kind of strongman heading our FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, who wore dresses in private, but secretly taped Martin Luther King, persecuted his enemies, and probably even blackmailed presidents. Still, he transformed America into a relatively law-abiding place, reducing the clout of the mafia and other mobs, getting undesirables like Al Capone off the street, and creating an atmosphere of relative internal peace.

Right, he was no Saddam. He didn’t rape anyone or rip off fingernails. Yet he was a law-breaker and a man who used the might of a nation against all his enemies. The positive was that, along with his abuses of power, he kept the country in line.

Does Iraq need another Saddam to keep the peace there? I hope not. I hope they can transition to a lesser tyrant like Wyatt Earp or J. Edgar Hoover, and maybe from there to the kinds of leaders we now have in America. Democrats and liberals call Bush a tyrant, but they have no idea what the meaning of tyrant is—read your history and see what Nixon was doing, J. Edgar Hoover, even Lincoln during the Civil War. See The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary War, a biography of Abraham Lincoln written by Thomas DiLorenzo in 2002. DiLorenzo presents evidence of civil liberties abuses such as the suspension of habeas corpus, violations of the first amendment, war crimes committed by generals in the American Civil War, and the expansion of government power. Lincoln was our most noble and benevolent tyrant, and thank God for him. Nixon was a good president except maybe for his handling of Vietnam, and for his tyranny. J. Edgar Hoover kept the peace, while violating civil rights.

Is there a Lincoln on the horizon in Iraq? I don’t see one, but I suppose it’s possible. These things take time. Again, they could settle for a Wyatt Earp, or even for a Nixon there. Then, they could improve to a J. Edgar Hoover, and then a Bush. That would be good enough for any nation. You don’t necessarily need to arrive at a Lincoln in order to have a good, functioning country.

Rock


(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)

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