Udai and Qusai

Originally Posted 07/28/2003 @ 7PM EDT

We begin with the Hussein brothers and their recent termination in a firefight with US Troops near Mosul, Iraq. My first thought about this topic was: "What should I feel?" No answer became immediately apparent. As an American, I suppose I should at the very least feel satisfaction in the successful operation to seek out the Boys. Perhaps I should even feel some sort of jubilation now that these two "evil" men have been smitten. As a human, one must wonder what their family feels. This may seem silly to wonder, as anyone who loses a loved one must feel grief. However, if the many stories I have heard of the Boys behavior are true, I wonder if they feel relief as well. These were, after all, men who delighted in some of the most perverse torture and humiliation known to man. If one needs an example take Udai's wandering eye, which more than once fell on the new bride of another man; a man who sometimes disappeared shortly after the wedding and a bride who was sometimes used as a plaything and then discarded or killed. Surely these types of men deserved their fate. Udai was so out of control as a young man that he was jailed by his own father. Aside from the family, and myself my interest focused on other Iraqi's. Did they feel outrage? Relief? Grief? A combination of these? I know for my own part, if an occupying army shot and killed my worst American born enemy, I would be pissed. It is a natural response. There is something most unsettling about an outsider exerting force, even justifiable force, in the land of another. And so, I watch some Iraqis weep for the Boys and curse the American military. I wonder if these same Iraqis will sleep better knowing the Boys are dead. I wonder if there is a sleight of hand going on here, a hypocritical twist. Biting the hand that feeds? Vichy France yet again? Many focus on how the average Iraq should feel about an occupying force in their homeland and decidedly unstable social atmosphere in the wake of Sadaam Hussein's crumbling leadership. But what of the American who tries to figure out how to feel about a society that is willing to accept the good that military intervention might bring, while spitting in the faces that bring it. Enter Liberia. Another similar situation. Liberians begging for American intervention line the streets looking for camera to cry into. They curse America each time another body is tagged while we sit back and do nothing. I wonder if these same people will be protesting our presence once we arrive in force. Help! Help, Americans! The big-bad-wolf-evil-konspiracy-of-peace-hating-war-mongers are running amok. And so we go. Weeks later our dead soldiers are dragged through the streets naked and spit on while those same faces cheer and clap. What a fitting reward. It doesn't matter whether it is Liberians in the streets, warlords in Mogadishu, or well-respected and internationally respected leaders who gather in New York. We still go. And we still pay the price. Which brings us to the UN. "May we fight in Iraq," said the American President to the UN. "No, you may not," replied the Security Council. "Why not," asked the President. "Because China and Russia fear that you will use this as an excuse to occupy Iraq and put a strangle-hold on Middle-Eastern oil production as well as using Iraq as a possible jumping off point in invasions of other countries closer to them. And France has decided that it would like to flex its veto muscle just to prove that it is still relevant in post-Cold War international politics. Pay no attention to the French fighters and machine parts and nuclear reactors behind the Iraqi curtain. And when we bat our eyelashes and ask for US troops to 'keep the peace' in Liberia, write the orders, bend over, and take it like an American"