Letters to the Editor

• Twisted Logic

  [Read the article: Saddam: The death of a dictator]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  How can "Professor" Cole possibly twist the deserved death of blood soaked dictator into "revenge"? I just love the logic that absolves a man of his personal responsibility for the death of so many of his countrymen, in much the same way most other commentators try to blame all of his crimes on the US. Sorry, this is the Timothy McVee clarity moment - when someone so guilty of heinous crimes gets the justice he so richly deserves, and there is really no justification for denying it.

  Gassing at Halajaba? Suppression of the Shia in southern Iraq after the first Gulf War? Destruction of the southern marshlands in Iraq? The famous meeting of the Ba'ath party where his enemies names were called and they were led out to be shot? Does anyone seriously believe that Saddam was manipulated or directed to do these things?

  But the part of the article that I admire the most are the assertions: "since the U.S. invasion he has gradually emerged as a symbol of the humiliation that the once-dominant Sunni minority has suffered under a new government dominated by Shiites and Kurds." Humiliation? Would that be perhaps as in "loss of running the country and control of all the good jobs and oil revenues? (even though we are only 18% of the population).

  Of course, we also have the obligatory slap at the Shia - "Hanging Saddam on Saturday was perceived by Sunni Arabs as the act of a Shiite government that had accepted the Shiite ritual calendar" Or perhaps alternately as just executing Saddam before the end of the (western) year ends?

  When I read this and most other articles with statement like "Iraqis began to yearn for the oppressive security of the Saddam period." I am stuck by the moral bankruptcy in the intellectual community - that suggests that life in a dictatorship is now the preferable alternative to the potential for a free society. The "blood feuds" that you describe tearing Iraq apart are a direct consequence of allowing the "stability" to fester so long in this region as one group runs rampant over the other. If the invasion of Iraq has shown anything - it is that the tensions and pressures built up over decades cannot be easily contained - and they do not get better on their own.

  But revenge? No, justice was served today - and Saddam's death was one in Iraq that was richly deserved.

  Permalink Saturday, December 30, 2006 02:10 AM

• Sisyphean struggle

  [Read the article: Guantánamo: Five years and counting]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  The only reason that there is a "Sisyphean struggle" over Guantanamo is that BOTH sides on this issue cannot admit that there is a fundamental flaw in the current system to deal with an non-governmental international militia. Is this a police problem, is this a military problem or is this something else? Shoehorning the Geneva Conventions into this "war" just makes it worse, since they were never meant to deal with a situation like this - they were designed for conventional or guerrilla war.

  The fundamental problem is that modern technology has enabled such potential destructive power into the hands of small groups that no government can afford to ignore the threat. But again - with groups that operate internationally - is it a police or a military problem? With such potential destruction - governments (read politicians) are going to act preemptively because they would be crucified if they don't - or act like they do not.

  The trick is how to keep this from becoming Big Brother.

  Let's be blunt - the only realistic alternative to Guantanamo at this time is battlefield executions - no prisoners to handle. But that is not going to happen as long as anyone thinks that they can pry, coerce or wear down information from one of these people.

  And let's also be blunt - many of the people in Guantanamo were just scooped up and dumped there because there was no other place. Many there deserve it - and many probabaly do - the Tipton 3 and their lame "search for the perfect naan" fall into that category. But there are those that do not.

  So - can someone try to design and implement a new international code on how to deal with this situation - this grey area that so badly needs some hard and fast rules? Because until that happens - places like Guantanamo are going to exist - whatever administration is in power. and it will be a lot longer than 5 years before the situation on these people is resolved.

  Permalink Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:22 AM