Now that Saddam is dead is the world really any different? The war on terror isn’t over, not by a long shot. As of December 2006 the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the war on terror had surpassed the number of people killed in the 9/11 attacks, the event that triggered the war. Saddam is dead and the killing hasn’t stopped. More soldiers and civilians on both sides will die. Nothing has changed. Iraq is still a nation fraught with unrest and the death of Saddam will likely make that unrest worse before, and if, it ever gets better. Saddam is dead but there will be another dictator, another world monster, another face for evil. Somebody new will emerge to take his place. History has proven this. This world class bully is gone and his victims can rest a bit, but the hate that fueled him is still in the world and those victims can never be certain that a new person won’t take power and continue with Saddam styled persecutions. The real comfort for his victims is revenge. And if as a collective we members of the Western world are honest with ourselves we’ll admit that revenge is at the heart of our wanting to see Saddam die. As with the school yard bully whose victims fight back justice is not the true motivator, retribution is. Macrocosm meet microcosm; ruthless dictator meet school yard bully.
While the behavior of your average school yard bully can’t really be compared to the atrocities committed under the leadership of Saddam Hussein there are definite parallels. Saddam acted on the world stage and his crimes include mass murder, torture and the suppression of freedom; the school yard bully’s stage is much smaller and s/he rarely kills but his or her actions can be tortuous and freedom limiting as well. They are not the same in scope but they are the same in spirit. The way the world treats its Saddam Husseins will have an impact on that smaller stage. It will shape the moral landscape of the world in general and this will have an effect on every arena of human interaction. Can a lesson be learned from the death of Saddam Hussein? Yes. What will that lesson be? That's for you to decide.
