Tuesday, December 16, 2003

SADDAM MUST DIE.
No, this is not some graffiti I saw on the way to work or the draft of a threatening letter I’m working on. It’s common sense, Middle Eastern style. These are the rules of the game. The King is Dead! Long Live the King!

Listen, you dorks, as long as he lives, it’s not over*.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m opposed to the death penalty. In Israel. Unless, as Israeli law states, the person in question has been convicted of genocide. (And even so, I have nightmares that some day Yigal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin’s assassinator, will be pardoned and set free to a cheering crowd). But this isn’t Israel. This is Iraq. The deposed tyrant dies. Period. Nothing less than stringing him up in the center of Baghdad (and then impaling his severed head on a very tall pole for all to witness) will suffice.

He has human rights? Don’t make me laugh.

That sounds awful. I can’t believe I just wrote it. But there it is. I stand by it, squeamish vegetarian and lapsed Buddhist that I am.

(So much for writing in a way that doesn't aggravate those that disagree with me)

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*By "it" I don't mean the armed opposition to the American presence in Iraq or the terrorism, I mean his rule - the hope for his return by some and the fear of it by others.