random commenttomorrow_devilJanuary 27 2007, 00:38:01 UTC
I know this is an old post, but I just kind of happened upon it looking through LJs from UCSC people . . . I am definitely a fan of your handle, "alysaurus'.
At any rate, it's donned on me that no one's talking about Saddam's death just a few weeks after it has happened. Just like that, the arch-villain of my entire childhood, the evil-doer that was the most popular bad guy for us little boys in middle school, has been - poof - erased. When he was captured, my little brother (who was then a member of the 1st infantry) gave me a t-shirt. It had Saddam's face on it - the familiar, bedraggled image of the Saddam that they pulled out of the "spider hole" - and the words "WE GOT HIM". That the Army and the American public were so ravenous over Saddam was frightening. When I got that t-shirt, the roles were reversed: America (i.e., in this case, the Army) were the slathering fiends celebrating the bringing low of a man who, at that moment, couldn't be described as anything but pitiful.
Still, it's been hard to feel sorry for Saddam. For sure, he was a villain. He probably got what he deserved. Even now in late January, there's this lingering feeling in me . . . it's too uncomfortable and difficult to articulate well . . . it's not my anti-death penalty sentiments, and it's not that Saddam's execution, though carried out by the Iraqi courts, is obviously an extension of the American prerogative to act in foreign affairs without a real concept of justice . . .
Even if he was a terribly evil man, his death has somehow become this awkward point of emotion condensation for me: My continued doubt about the way this country is run and my ideals about right and wrong have collapsed into a moment of mourning for my childhood's greatest anti-hero and the unshakeable, knotty feeling that the world somehow should be a better place now, but isn't.
At any rate, it's donned on me that no one's talking about Saddam's death just a few weeks after it has happened. Just like that, the arch-villain of my entire childhood, the evil-doer that was the most popular bad guy for us little boys in middle school, has been - poof - erased. When he was captured, my little brother (who was then a member of the 1st infantry) gave me a t-shirt. It had Saddam's face on it - the familiar, bedraggled image of the Saddam that they pulled out of the "spider hole" - and the words "WE GOT HIM". That the Army and the American public were so ravenous over Saddam was frightening. When I got that t-shirt, the roles were reversed: America (i.e., in this case, the Army) were the slathering fiends celebrating the bringing low of a man who, at that moment, couldn't be described as anything but pitiful.
Still, it's been hard to feel sorry for Saddam. For sure, he was a villain. He probably got what he deserved. Even now in late January, there's this lingering feeling in me . . . it's too uncomfortable and difficult to articulate well . . . it's not my anti-death penalty sentiments, and it's not that Saddam's execution, though carried out by the Iraqi courts, is obviously an extension of the American prerogative to act in foreign affairs without a real concept of justice . . .
Even if he was a terribly evil man, his death has somehow become this awkward point of emotion condensation for me: My continued doubt about the way this country is run and my ideals about right and wrong have collapsed into a moment of mourning for my childhood's greatest anti-hero and the unshakeable, knotty feeling that the world somehow should be a better place now,
but isn't.
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