We do not gloat about winning when the price is death. This morning the President of the United States confirmed that the most feared -- and loathed -- terrorist in Iraq had been killed by US airstrikes. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead indeed. But we do not praise this news in the way others might. We do not run into city streets, with guns pointed skyward, strafing the quiet sky with bullets. We burn nothing in effigy; we burn no cars. We do not strap bombs to our chests and kill ourselves. We are simply glad justice is served, and that a murderer has been stopped. And we are justly sad that it all has to happen at all.
I watched President Bush this morning as he made the announcement, and, while it was clear he did not gloat and that he was even quite circumspect, I wish that he had said something that indicated that America does not revel in this sort of news. This is not a condemnation of him: as President, he (theoretically) embodies all of America, and there are Americans whose loved ones were killed by the man who died this morning. It's rather to observe that we are a complex people; we want justice for the worst offenders, and yet we grieve, often, when justice is meted out. Mr. al-Zarqawi could not be any more of a monster in my eyes: Any man, for any reason, who beheads another, while using a small knife and recording the demonic act on videotape, deserves mercy, in my opinion, and death is that mercy. I have opposed the death penalty elsewhere in these pages. But to hack the head off of a panic-stricken, shrieking man; to then broadcast that brutality over the internet, is to earn a direct-to-death card, or so I believe. You have given yourself over to something unredeemable (at least it is unredeemable by anyone walking on this planet), when you kill that way.
Today we do not gloat. We offer thanks that there are people committed to keeping all of us safe. And we pray for peace, knowing that peace may never come, or that if it does, that it must come hard. But the last we thing we hope is that Mr. al-Zarqawi has joined "other martyrs in heaven." Not that I wish hell upon him. I just wish hell on the violence that was clearly his love.
Peace.
©Bill Gnade 2006/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.
†No, we don't.
Technorati tags: al-Zarqawi, Zarqawi, Bush, Peace, Iraq, Martyrs, Death Penalty
1 comment:
TC,
You have made good points as well. I am grateful you have made them. And I thank you for sharing yourself here.
Peace.
BG
PS. I am sorry for the delay in responding to your comment. The same goes to others who waited for a reply. It seems the Blogger servers are having a hard time with comments. I am finding it difficult to do even the simplest things. Alas, perhaps I am the problem. Could it be?
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