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Saddam's Execution
buddhafoot
Veteran
Saddam will be executed Saturday December 30, 2006.
Or Friday, December 29th, @ 10:00 EST or 7:00 PST
-bf
Or Friday, December 29th, @ 10:00 EST or 7:00 PST
-bf
0
Comments
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manner of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
Saddam has managed, at the very last, to leave an image of courage behind him.
There are no excuses for the horrors and crimes for which he was responsible. We can hope that historical revisionism will never rehabilitate him as it has with other 'monsters'.
In Huis Clos, Sartre suggests that we are condemned to the judgment of others and that judgment may bear only on our last action: a cowardly death destroys a life of heroism.
Saddam is dead and the problems facing Iraq have not changed. No magic has suddenly given it peace and justice. No single death, nor even the death of millions, stops the process of history, although it may shift it into unexpected courses. As Buddhists or as Christians, many of us (not all - I acknowledge) believe that the hanging does not end anything: it is a transition. The Iraqi government, by making and releasing the video of the execution, may trap us in a moment away from which we are being carried.
At the turning of the year, as we begin to see the days lengthen (at last!), I am moved to pray that whatever it is that 'goes on' of Saddam Hussein may find peace and healing. I may be misrepresenting the strict Tibetan concept of the bardos. I know that I find the notion very hope-filled. Palzang is better qualified that I to explain them. Suffice it to say that they describe the dissolution of consciousness at death, identifying three stages which are (as I understand it) the final opportunities for 'awakening'.
In another thread, we hear about the practice of copying the sutras. As part of my meditation on the death of Saddam, and at my much more proletarian level, I am copying the first paragraphs of Sogyal Rinpoche's Tibetan Book of Living and Dying: (1) This puts me in mind of Jesus' cry of "Tetelestai" ("It is accomplished") at the moment of his death.
The teaching that I have received in the words of both Jesus and the Buddha shows me that I cannot judge the outcome of any other person's death transition. What I do know is that this semi-public execution has cast a pall over many of us.
(If you have read all the above, thank you. I needed to share some of my thoughts with friends who could understand. There are times when I feel quite isolated in my belief that "all will be well and and all will be well and all manner of things will be well". I know that there are still some here who persevere in this belief despite all the samsaric evidence to the contrary.)
Regardless of the correlates the name mantioned implies, one more is dead at the hands of another.
It's nice to see that someone else views this in the same light.
And I would hardly be saddened if I had lost my family to the chemical weaponry genocide against the Shia or Kurds. I would be the first to kick the chair out from under him.
When Mao Tse Tung died, the Dalai Lama wept. Why did he cry when this monster who killed perhaps a million Tibetans and created huge amounts of suffering died? Because the Dalai Lama realized the endless suffering that the being who was Mao in this life faced. I feel the same about Sadaam.
Palzang
I cannot help but be appalled by the notion that the killing of an unarmed, defenceless person by masked people in a concrete shed, on video, is deemed by one president as a "milestone on (the) course to becoming a democracy". I fear that it is more likely to be a millstone.
Palzang
Perhaps he has a more perceptive grasp of history than we believe: maybe it's true that 'democracy' cannot be established without a foundation in blood and slaughter.
And, of course, we have to bear in mind that one person's traitor is another's hero. As a guide in Westminster Abbey, I used to show visitors (including those from the US) the fine tomb dedicated to Major John Andre! (For those who do not know the name, here is a link:
Major John Andre
and his tomb:
http://www.silverwhistle.co.uk/lobsters/andre.html)
The statement was something like this :" We are against death penality, executing whomever we do not support. Nevertheless, our thoughts are with all the victims of Saddam`s rule today"
French paper LeMonde writes: If one stands by the principle to reject the death penaltiy, as it is the case in the whole European Union, there can not be exceptions. To speak of exceptions would mean to undermine the principle.
Important to remember is especially this:
That Saddam was a tyrant is beyond dispute, but what is conveniently forgotten is that most of his crimes were committed when he was a staunch ally of those who now occupy the country. It was, as he admitted in one of his trial outbursts, the approval of Washington (and the poison gas supplied by West Germany) that gave him the confidence to douse Halabja with chemicals in the midst of the Iran-Iraq war.
As for me, I especially remember today smart and upright people like Edward Said who wrote 2003 :
I have been criticised recently for my anti-war position by illiterates who claim that what I say is an implied defence of Saddam Hussein and his appalling regime. To my Kuwaiti critics, do I need to remind them that I publicly opposed Ba'athi Iraq during the only visit I made to Kuwait in 1985, when in an open conversation with the then Minister of Education Hassan Al-Ibrahim I accused him and his regime of aiding and abetting Arab fascism in their financial support of Saddam Hussein? I was told then that Kuwait was proud to have committed billions of dollars to Saddam's war against "the Persians", as they were then contemptuously called, and that it was a more important struggle than someone like me could comprehend. I remember clearly warning those Kuwaiti acolytes of Saddam Hussein about him and his ill will against Kuwait, but to no avail. I have been a public opponent of the Iraqi regime since it came to power in the 70s: I never visited the place, never was fooled by its claims to secularism and modernisation (even when many of my contemporaries either worked for or celebrated Iraq as the main gun in the Arab arsenal against Zionism, a stupid idea, I thought), never concealed my contempt for its methods of rule and fascist behaviour. And now when I speak my mind about the ridiculous posturing of certain members of the Iraqi opposition as hapless strutting tools of US imperialism, I am told that I know nothing about life without democracy (about which more later), and am therefore unable to appreciate their nobility of soul. Little notice is taken of the fact that barely a week after extolling President Bush's commitment to democracy Professor Makiya is now denouncing the US and its plans for a post-Saddam military-Ba'athi government in Iraq. When individuals get in the habit of switching the gods whom they worship politically there's no end to the number of changes they make before they finally come to rest in utter disgrace and well deserved oblivion.
If unhappiness befalls your enemy,
Why should this be a cause for your rejoicing?
The wishes of your mind alone,
Will not in fact contrive his injury.
And if your hostile wishes were to bring them harm,
Again, what cause of joy is that to you?
'Why, then I should be satisfied!' -- are these your thoughts?
Is anything more ruinous than that?
May 2007 bring happiness in peace in place of the war and suffering we experienced in 2006!
Palzang
I felt much the same way.
The greatest mass-murderer of the 20th Century, Stalin, died in his bed as did Augusto Pinochet and many another.
Although I have not - and shall not - viewed the camera-phone footage of Saddam's execution, just as I refused to watch the execution of hostages, it may be that some people will realise just what we are allowing when we give our rulers permission to execute.
This execution was revenge, impure but simple. That it should have turned into a fracas is unsurprising. It was a lynching, sanctioned by a dubious court process and rushed through for political reasons.
It shames us that the leaders of the 'democracies' have either refused to comment or have supported the execution.
Palzang
That is certainly true. While the precise working out of the results of kamma is considered one of the four unconjecturables (AN 4.77), there are said to be three ways in which those results (vipaka) can ripen—during this life-time (dittha-dhamma-vedaniya-kamma); in the next birth (upapajja-vedaniya-kamma); and in later births (aparapariya-vedaniya-kamma). Furthermore, the reasons why the results of unwholesome deeds vary from one person to another are elaborated upon in the Lonaphala Sutta (AN 3.99), the Cula-kammavibhanga Sutta (MN 135), and the Maha-kammavibhanga Sutta (MN 136) just to name a few. Essentially, as the Venerable Thanissaro so eloquently puts it in Wings to Awakening, the relationship between an act and its result as not predictable and tit-for-tat due to the fact that the principle of this/that conditionality makes this relationship inherently more complex.
Regards,
Jason
Compassion for such people is a quality they do not share, but will easily thrive on. How can we reasonably show pity for dictators like Hussein? And what would have been a better option? He received due process at the cost of many involved innocent lives I might add.
Victimizing him doesn't make sense to me. He is dead. Good riddance.
Palzang
Friend,
Things are already well. But we fail to realize this in the same manner as we mistake a rope for a snake. We are paralyzed with deadly fear by the horrors & phantoms of this world, but all for naught. I am not beyond this yet myself, as I am intending to become more actively engaged with the fear at present, but I have faith that this is true. May we all come to see this unmistakably for ourselves. May we all come come to witness the death of fear.
Palzang,
Excellent thoughts. For the benefit of all sentient beings, may Saddam & all the terrible beings have their negative karma ripen in the most expedient manner possible & may they find the path to freedom.
KOB,
It is my understanding, as far as the teachings go, that both you & I (and everyone for that matter) have committed worse crimes than this fellow Saddam. And furthermore, he is going to reap a very bitter harvest from these seeds he has sown & cultivated. Potentially, countless aeons of hell & preta realms. Now, if you don't believe in that stuff, then I can understand your sentiments a bit more, but this is pretty much what the teachings tell us. Additionally, feeling sadness at his death does not mean we do not feel sadness for the death of those killed by the hands of this horrible murderer. It's just a recognition of the sadness of this situation. This recognition quite naturally inspires us to practice further & be better human beings. To awaken our innermost potential & bring benefit to the myriad worlds, to bring ourselves out of the mire & muck of Samsaric existence & bring joy, peace & hope to all beings.
Best wishes & metta
_/\_
metta
_/\_
Palzang
However, there has been no accomplishment in hanging Saddam. My feelings on this execution are nonexistent. I feel nothing now that he is dead. The "insurgency" continues in Iraq, it is inching ever closer to civil war, and Americans are continuing to die almost daily while constrained by Rules of Engagement that prevent this war from being fought. And yet, Saddam was given some gifts and opportunities that few others in Iraq could match, and he wasted it all on securing his own power and eliminating his enemies.
BTW, a minor technicality, while many of the people working in the higher levels of the federal government were in the lower levels when Saddam was put in power, this is not really the same government as that time. We have a whole slew of high level Politicians and Military Officers who had no real say in what was done in the 70s/80s. Basically, once again, our generation is cleaning up the mistakes of an earlier generation.
It is, alas, true that parents condemn their sons and daughters to clear up their mess. Iraq, Iran and Israel - all were created by the Euro-US alliance, within living memory, as they are now. It is my generation which put Saddam and the Ayatollahs into power, for our own benefit, and now we are sacrificing our kids to the same benefit.
No. But who gives a shoot?
Look at the Ven. Bhikkhu Samahita's quote #231 from yesterday's Daily Dhamma Drops:
Then he should think:
May all beings be joyous and safe!
Let every creature's mind rejoice.
Whatever breathing beings there are,
No matter whether feeble or firm,
With none excepted, whether long;
Tall, big, medium, short or small;
Whether seen or unseen, visible or not;
Whether living far or near, here or there;
Whether existing or just about to become;
Let every living being's mind be jubilant!!!
Let none kill or another one undo,
Nor harm anyone anywhere at all …
Let none wish another any ill, neither
From provocation nor by any evil revenge.
I've really enjoyed this. Especially the thoughts of karma.
-bf
"He has weapons of mass destruction, and he will use them." Former Pres. Bill Clinton.
What a friggin mess.