[lit-ideas] Hussein -- Here's a ridiculous thought

_Click  here: World leaders welcome, condemn execution - Yahoo! News_ 
(http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061230/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam_world_view)  
 
This article clearly demonstrates that all the various factions involved  
are, predictably, championing the hanging as a spokes-piece for their  
agenda....Hussein as martyer, Hussein as hero, Hussein as victim, aggressor,  
take your 
pick; this was a huge opportunity for everyone of every stripe to  "cash in" 
on, to use to their advantage.  It can serve to empower all of  the conflicted 
parties in one way or another.
 
What if.
 
What if, instead of this outcome, Hussein had been required by law,  escorted 
by guards, to go from place to place, house to house, home to home,  city to 
city, in prison garb and well guarded, to do whatever was available to  make 
restitution to the families of those he so violently, viciously, and  
ruthlessly damaged?  What if he were to have been made to scrub floors or  
clean 
toilets or plow fields, or cook, or obtain water, or dig latrines, or  
.......whatever was needed.....in humble (albeit enforced) service to those he  
harmed?  He 
would not continue to be a focal issue, a martyr, a hero, a  devil, a 
monster.  I realize that does not adequately foment high emotions  of whatever 
stripe, but somehow middle grounds and practical approaches are not  so much 
idealistic, but pragmatic.  On the occasion when the two are both  served, it 
is a 
decent place to be.
 
Julie Krueger

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