On Tasting Saddam's Blood

Saddam Hussein has been hung. The chalice containing his blood is being held to our lips and, at least for this blogger, the taste is acrid.

This has been a day of sober reflection, a day in which my American soul felt sick with shame over what has been done in my name. There was no energy in my step as I walked while wondering: Who believes this one death was worth the destruction of an entire nation?

Who believes it was worth the life of Abir al-Janabi, the young girl who was gang raped and killed by U.S. troops? Was the horror she endured - was her life or the lives of her family members - worth this?

In regard to the impact on U.S. families: Who believes that securing this one death was worth the deaths of 3000 and the maiming of 22,000 [and some say 40,000] recruits?

My god, I hope the answer is not many; not many believe this single dismal end justifies the pox we have unleashed.

There is one uncomfortable truth that many are expressing: if we would attempt to rid the world of murderers like Saddam Hussein, then none of us can be one.

Yet, that is exactly what this administration has made the U.S. as a nation and each of us by proxy: a mass murderer.

Depending upon whose statistics you believe, between 52,139 and 600,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. invasion. Anyone who thinks atrocities like Haditha or the rape of Abir are isolated incidents is lying to himself, showing ignorance of both statistics and human nature.

Hawks and the "empathy-challenged" are fond of bad-mouthing the compassionate. But they lack the insight to realize what the world would be like if every single compassionate person was eliminated and those who remained were "empathy-free."

That "eye for an eye" strike-first mentality that the fearful, power hungry and rapacious advocate would soon result in universal blindness, if not outright extinction.