Awaiting the Magical-Mystery Angel of Death

Posted on December 29, 2006 in Occupation of Iraq

It is entirely politically incorrect to note that anything wise or spiritually liberating comes out of the mouth of the current arch-demon of Christendom, Saddam Hussein, but he may well end up being remembered for the words of his last days on this planet:

“I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking,” said the letter, which was written in Arabic and translated by the AP.

“I also call on you not to hate the people of the other countries that attacked us…remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence.”

But he also voiced support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency, saying: “Long live jihad and the mujahedeen.” He urged Iraqis to be patient and rely on God’s help in fighting “against the unjust nations.”

Saddam said he was giving his life for his country as part of that struggle. “Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if he wants, he will send it to heaven with the martyrs,” he said.

Is Hussein hoping for one of Peter Max’s* angels to float down and waft him out so that he does not feel the sting of the Hangman’s noose? Or has his long imprisonment led him to search his heart as toes standing on the edge of the grave are wont to do, to seek out once more the real intentions behind his mixed legacy?

I shall not be one to mock these words, merely one to mark them in their sorrow and their reflectiveness.

The knowledge that a man is about to die concentrates his mind wonderfully. Keeping mortality before one’s eyes at all times is the difference between Hussein and Gandhi. Hussein won’t be the last time that a cluster of good causes** has become embroiled in foul means and corruption. Or suceeded by turmoil.

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*Verification sought: has Peter Max been involved with the Sufis?

**Among the good causes that were lost in the fall of Hussein were the campaign to end sheik-depotism, women’s rights, and tolerance of both Sunnite and Shiite Islam. Yes, these were narrow, but the future is turning out for the worse in the days after Hussein. We went in planning to turn out a gasser and turned out the reforms that gasser had implaced. Couldn’t we have saved them and not given the nation over to Islamic fanaticism? The people of Iraq — the people are surrounded on all sides with enemies.