Damn We Look Bad. Just When You Thought It Couldn't Get Any Worse...

[Solomon]

How much worse can we get? It just keeps on going like the energizer bunny.

I will forever be haunted by those black hoods. I never expected that. It just feels so illegitimate because of the hoods. Those hoods have now become ours. WE now have the same face as the "enemy".

The only party who showed any dignity in this whole passion play was Saddam. I don't give a damn if I get flamed. I'm sick to death of what we have become.

If you want to be the world's superpower with the neo-con myth of a country destined to govern the world as the good guy fighting the bad guys, you have to be better than the bad guys. Once in a while, you have to do something "good" to feed the myth.

There was no reason under the sun for not demonstrating our magnamity by having Bush recommend to the Iraqis that Saddam be shut away for life. Mercy by the conquering hero. The good guy.

But instead, the first thing we show this fledgling "democracy" is that vengeance and revenge are high priorities. Eye for an eye.

No matter how bad Saddam was, we are NOT the good guys. Just because he was bad doesn't make us good.

I think they WANT to make a martyr out of Saddam. Propaganda notwithstanding, the great feared "islamist" terrorist beast has actually failed in fomenting revolution in the middle east.
It was petering out. Why? Because the average muslim in the middle east is much like us. They abhor the violence and so refuse to provide the wave that the radicals want to surf to revolution.

Yet in America, the propaganda is telling us that the whole culture must be routed out. I have friends (some of them no longer) who have thrown their hands up in the air and lament out loud that america is too weak and doesn't have the guts to do what it needs to do - nuke the whole middle east.

What's so curious about this situation is that muslim radicals make the same claims about us average americans, i.e., that since we participate in the system, we are not innocent and therefore, fit to be killed.

All this talk among the circle jerks of both sides. Meanwhile everyday people, muslims and americans alike, want the violence to stop. The people on both sides do not support the madmen who are in charge.

The people, as usual, are treated just like cattle herded for the slaughter.

Muslim radicals need us to keep doing stupid things or they will peter out. Our administration desperately needs the muslim radicals to keep doing stupid things in order to maintain its power.

Two sides of the same coin.

Sorry for the rant. I just felt I needed to get those hoods off my chest, even as they are being placed on my head.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. He died without fear and with dignity.

I agree with you on that. The spectacle of hooded assasins carrying out this execution with glee brought us full circle: we are indeed as bad as the assasins of Nick Berg.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. They probably

both used the same film crew.

[Skidmore]

2. It wont' change until we build a fire under someone's

butt to remove the neocons from positions of power. Whether by indictment, impeachment, or laughing them out of town, I don't care how they do it, just do it. January 4th will have me all over any congressional critter or senate slouch I can get to and give a them an earful. This has got to stop. And if it doesn't stop, I will work just as hard to get offending Dems out of office because they are no better than these criminal rubberstamping Republics.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. You are right about the average Joe and Abdullah

what is disturbing is the fact that the extremists try to nudge out moderate voices. Here in the US, it is done via the MSM, to a large extent-over in the ME, it is done by outlawing moderate sects and destroying their places of worship and study. Every time the US causes something extreme to happen, it strengthens the extremists, who are emboldened first to persecute moderates within their midst, and then lash out against their perceived enemies.

[EST]

4. Although I am not in favor the death penalty, I find myself

ambivalent in this case. If the stories are to be believed, retribution and revenge are held in high esteem in that region, even more than in this country.

I suspect the only way Saddam was to avoid execution was by dieing from some other malady first. The unfortunate part of this particular timing is the rejoicing of bush and his minions.
Yes, those black hoods will haunt, as an unspoken concession to the undeniable fact that it is murder and the murderer knows that murder is wrong.

[LynnTheDem]

5. That's the New Democratic Iraq; in the New America, we watch snuff films

Thanks, bUsh.

[lisby]

7. I agree completely...

This whole thing makes me sick. We're becoming the monsters we warn against.

Lisby

[Dhalgren]

8. You are right. Those hoods were slipped over all of our heads.

We have to have the courage to remove those hoods...

[Union Thug]

9. Won't get a flame from me. Bush and Saddam aren't much different...

Except Saddam was smarter and braver. After all, didn't he challenge the chimperor to a duel at some point? I'm surprised the swaggering wannabe cowboy didn't put on his best man-with-no-name mask and fly his cowardly, elitist, rich-boy ass on over to Iraq to prove what a great and fearless cowboy he really is.

Of course, our brave sir robin of a president would never fight his own battles.