Dei gratia

A Letter To My Sister:

(Last night, my sis and I had an argument and I started crying and went to bed. Today, I have tried to tell her why--and why it wasn't her fault.)

Sis, you don't understand. Last night was one of the most emotional days of my entire life. Though I make it personal--between you and me--when I'm upset, that's not what's going on--though I know that's all you see, and that's what you have to deal with.

Last night, and today, I cannot think of Saddam's execution without crying, sobbing, really. You see... all the work I've been doing on the Internet has been against him. I supported the President against him, I've championed his elimination a million different ways every single day.

I know things about him you do not know... an awfulness that I won't bring to you. An evil that is unparalleled. The things he's done. Torturing children in front of their parents until they were rendered mentally deranged--and then murdered too..... people having their body parts cut off little by little while they were living.... people skinned alive and then having boiling water/acid/infective bacteria poured on them and then thrown into a cold room to fester until their entire body was blistered and covered in pus; it took weeks for them to die.... I've seen video, pics... one was a row of a person's body parts that had been cut off inch by inch and displayed--all while he was living and watched his body laid out before him....

This is a man, a regime, an idea, that was put to death yesterday. But it was not President Bush that put him to death. I did it. You did it. The American people did it. America did it.

Last night, and still, I have to come to terms with that. I never knew I had that kind of power--and it is very sobering. How many Americans have awakened today and said " I killed this man--it was the right thing to do--but it is a death for which I am responsible"?

Stupid, stupid libbies, Leftists, D'RATS accuse us of being so hawkish and bloodthirsty... And here I am reflecting on the momentous thing we have done and how best to temper it in the future. Not not use it, but to make absolutely sure, when we do use it, it is the right thing to do.

Killing Saddam was the right thing to do--and it has brought a real joy to my soul the way few things ever have. But that does not mean I am unmindful of what I have done. The flipdips are wrong in thinking we will just run around, willy-nilly, executing our enemies; I give it more thought and heart than they ever could. Yesterday brought home, like few things would, how terribly seriously we need to take this--and did.

CAVEAT:

In retrospect, dear ZinLA, in her great wisdom, has suggested that (and in answer to Alan Colmes deriding us for this fact): I, too, believe it’s WE who did this, but I believe we should give credit to Iraqis today, as well……I believe they ought to know we brought Saddam to them--the world knows we proudly and rightfully did that--(but that we also need to) give some credence to this new Iraqi government. Let the Iraqis own this, let them say they did this… We know (that this happened due to our action), but we don’t need Alan Colmes using it as yet another negative against us, which was exactly his point.

Yes, Saddam had to be killed……it’s best he’s gone, to say the least!!!! Mr. Bush is sincere that he wants this new Iraqi gov’t to take care of itself, so let it be ‘understood’ that ‘they’ did this, let’s have Americans supporting him, not fighting him every damned inch of the way, like Colmes and most of CNN and MSNBC………Let’s give credit to Iraq, to Maliki, for even signing that paper…those hangmen didn’t wear masks because they forgot their Clearasil the night before!!!, they’re still scared of retribution! This took guts on the part of the Iraqis and we need to give them credit…………even if we’re “goddam right’ that this happened because of US!!

Very good! And I agree. I was speaking a bit more generally than I should have been. Yes, we caused this to happen--set it into motion. But for the United States of America, it would not have (though perhaps an assassination by his cohorts, or a coup, might've eventually dispatched him.) It was an Iraqi rope--hung by a jury, at the end of a judicial proceeding (rare in that world)--that sent Saddam to his death. For that, they should be entirely commended. Thank you, ZinLA, for making sense out of my over-generalizations!