![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm not sure if a death -- the death of anyone -- ever makes the world a better place. It seems to me that vengeance, even if it would be just, is the end of a very dark path.
On the other hand, I don't think that his death diminishes the world in any way, either. The man did evil things and world just stood by and shook it's head. It's an odd thing about the world. As long as a mass murderer just kills his countrymen, we don't care. It's his right, after all. He managed to be smart or cruel or corrupt enough to climb his way to the top of the body pile and etch the name of "dictator" in blood right above his own, so it must be his right to do whatever the hell he want. As for his victims, well if his countrymen are too poor or too stupid or just too afraid to stand up to him, maybe they deserve what happens to them too.
I'm sure that's harsher than it really is. And phrased in a confrontational manner, too. You're not going to find any normal, sane person claiming that people deserve to be under the murderous thumb of a tyrant. It's just that most people just don't want to get involved in something that can't be cleaned up neatly. It's just easier to accept atrocities when we're sure that we can't do anything about them.
And there is a thread of truth in the comments, as inflammatory as they are phrased. Dictators can be overthrown by foreign powers -- look at Germany, Japan, Italy -- but it takes the citizenry of the country to make a non-dictatorship work. And time. It's interesting how we (Americans) tend to forget that it took us hundreds of years and a bloody civil war to get to where we are. And we're still so divided that the rule is "no politics" in most social settings.
What I find most interesting about Saddam's execution is that it happened it all. The world is a fairly safe place for violent, bloody dictators. I can't remember the last one that was actually executed. Slobodan Milosevik came close, but he died before the trial was over, so I supposed we'll have to say that he died an innocent man. Augusto Pinochet was honored by many has a hero at his death, despite the thousands killed and tortured under his rule. But then again, economic prosperity will always win the favor of those who prosper. Idi Amin lived out the last years of his life in exile, but he lived them.
And look at the ones in power currently -- Omar al-Bashir (Sudan), Kim Jong-il (North Korea), Than Shwe (Burma), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan), Hu Jintao (China). I'm sure none of them are quaking in their (very expensive) boots because Saddam was executed. No. They're busy killing and starving their populace, creating decent, and sending representative to the UN Human Rights committee.
Personally, I think the death of Saddam isn't going to be more than a commenting point. There will be a line here and there pointing out that Saddam was defiant to the end, and faced his death without fear and all that other crap that comes with being a world class sociopath. Any rise in violence in Iraq will be marked with a comment of "coming shortly after Saddam's execution". The execution will drive flag burnings and the requisite news reports on the flag burnings. There will be very little comment on the fact that he was responsible for (and executed for) the murder of 148 some people who may have been part of a plot against him. There will be even less comment that he wasn’t executed for the gassing of the Kurds or the running of children’s prisons or any of the other thousands of atrocities he was responsible for.
Which is a shame really. Maybe if the world was convinced that it was worth standing up to tyrants, more of the world would.
On the other hand, I don't think that his death diminishes the world in any way, either. The man did evil things and world just stood by and shook it's head. It's an odd thing about the world. As long as a mass murderer just kills his countrymen, we don't care. It's his right, after all. He managed to be smart or cruel or corrupt enough to climb his way to the top of the body pile and etch the name of "dictator" in blood right above his own, so it must be his right to do whatever the hell he want. As for his victims, well if his countrymen are too poor or too stupid or just too afraid to stand up to him, maybe they deserve what happens to them too.
I'm sure that's harsher than it really is. And phrased in a confrontational manner, too. You're not going to find any normal, sane person claiming that people deserve to be under the murderous thumb of a tyrant. It's just that most people just don't want to get involved in something that can't be cleaned up neatly. It's just easier to accept atrocities when we're sure that we can't do anything about them.
And there is a thread of truth in the comments, as inflammatory as they are phrased. Dictators can be overthrown by foreign powers -- look at Germany, Japan, Italy -- but it takes the citizenry of the country to make a non-dictatorship work. And time. It's interesting how we (Americans) tend to forget that it took us hundreds of years and a bloody civil war to get to where we are. And we're still so divided that the rule is "no politics" in most social settings.
What I find most interesting about Saddam's execution is that it happened it all. The world is a fairly safe place for violent, bloody dictators. I can't remember the last one that was actually executed. Slobodan Milosevik came close, but he died before the trial was over, so I supposed we'll have to say that he died an innocent man. Augusto Pinochet was honored by many has a hero at his death, despite the thousands killed and tortured under his rule. But then again, economic prosperity will always win the favor of those who prosper. Idi Amin lived out the last years of his life in exile, but he lived them.
And look at the ones in power currently -- Omar al-Bashir (Sudan), Kim Jong-il (North Korea), Than Shwe (Burma), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe), Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan), Hu Jintao (China). I'm sure none of them are quaking in their (very expensive) boots because Saddam was executed. No. They're busy killing and starving their populace, creating decent, and sending representative to the UN Human Rights committee.
Personally, I think the death of Saddam isn't going to be more than a commenting point. There will be a line here and there pointing out that Saddam was defiant to the end, and faced his death without fear and all that other crap that comes with being a world class sociopath. Any rise in violence in Iraq will be marked with a comment of "coming shortly after Saddam's execution". The execution will drive flag burnings and the requisite news reports on the flag burnings. There will be very little comment on the fact that he was responsible for (and executed for) the murder of 148 some people who may have been part of a plot against him. There will be even less comment that he wasn’t executed for the gassing of the Kurds or the running of children’s prisons or any of the other thousands of atrocities he was responsible for.
Which is a shame really. Maybe if the world was convinced that it was worth standing up to tyrants, more of the world would.
