12.27.2006 | "I will be with the merciful God"

Thus wrote Saddam Hussein, in an epistle penned when he was convicted in November. According to this story in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Hussein

called on Iraqis not to hate the U.S.-led forces that invaded Iraq in 2003 in a farewell letter posted on a Web site Wednesday, a day after an appeals court upheld the former dictator's death sentence and ordered him to be hanged within one month.

[He also] said he was writing the letter because his lawyers had told him the Iraqi High Tribunal which tried his case would give him an opportunity to say a final word.

Of course, being who he is, he couldn't resist adding this:

But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the sentence — dictated by the invaders — without presenting the evidence.

It is fascinating how a brutal dictator might, just might, be mindful of who is the final Judge. As for the message of "do not hate," this strikes me as being too little, too late to have any ring of truth to it.

The truth is that Saddam is a man who had given himself over to evil. Lock, stock, and barrel. Now that he is in the dock, and it would seem soon to be killed by the state, perhaps he is finding God and will truly repent of his sins? Perhaps. So far, however, Saddam has not admitted his guilt, nor has he publically requested forgiveness of those people and groups he has tortured and attempted genocide on.

Despite what you might hear from the pulpit of some churches, forgiveness must be preceded by sincere repentance. As for whether one should execute Saddam, I would not do so. His life belongs not to us, but to God.

This being said, my punishment for one such as Saddam would be to place him in solitary confinement for the rest of his life, and give him no chance to communicate to the outside world.

To those who demand his head on a pike because that's the sort of thing that Muslim Arabs do all the time, well, we are different from them, now, aren't we? Saddam may be a monster; our job, now that that he is removed from being able to harm others, is to let him live out the rest of his natural life in the misery of his own tormented soul.

| technorati tag | Saddam Hussein|