I stumbled upon a video on youtube the other day.
It was the controversial camera-phone video of Saddam Hussein's execution. He was hanged on Dec. 30, 2006. As I was watching the video, I felt a bit sad. Sad for a dictator who killed thousands of his own people? Strange, I know.
But the fact is that Saddam really did help Iraq progress. I mean, he started this whole modernization movement by creating programs to stop illiteracy and providing far superior healthcare (landing him an award from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization). He helped Iraq become the only arab nation in the middle east to not follow the traditional Islamic laws of Sharia (in turn giving more freedom to women and allowing them higher-level positions in government occupations and so on). He created stability in Iraq by using an iron fist. This is arguably the most controversial of his actions, since he used a repressive security system to kill any uprisings or movements from the Shi'a or the Kurds. By doing this, he created economical stability (which was affected, again, by the sectarian violence of that time).
So then, it seems that Saddam wasn't such a bad guy at all, right? You know, disregarding the fact that his security programs repressed a lot of people, and the fact that he gassed 5,000 mostly innocent Kurds.
So where do we draw the line, here?
I think this relates to our essential question of "How should we live in this world?". What is really better? How you act here and now, or how your actions will affect the big picture in the future?
Also, how can someone be defined? Many arabs in Iraq right now remember Saddam as a hero, while others remember him as a dictator who did horrific things?
Once again, I think that it all depends on perspective. And doesn't everything? How you were raised, what you've been through, what you've seen...it can change everything, from how you live to how you see things in the future. Someone who was timid can become contumacious after dealing with authority in a big way, for instance.
I think that much of Iraq's positive aspects today can be imputed to Saddam's actions in the past.
But it's also fair to say that without a doubt, his hanging was justified.
We'll have to see who makes a difference next.
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1 comment:
He didn't gas "5,000 innocent Kurds" overnight. No one did anything to stop him. He had a very long reign and some of the blame (throughout most of his reign) lies with everyone else in the world.
I read this article about the Holocaust and how there were 5% of the people who were "ultra-nationalists" and wanted to kill all the Jews and 5% who opposed this. The rest did care but did not oppose the killing or the living of the Jews. They were indifferent. However the 5% that wanted to kill them was the ruling class, so they did. And 90% did nothing.
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