Check out what Conrado de Quiros of PDI thinks of Saddam Hussein's guilty verdict for genocide and crimes against humanity, and the death sentence issued by an Iraqi Court under its recently ratified 2005 Constitution-- CdQ: "What arrant nonsense. If the trial itself, not to speak of the verdict, moves the world to tears, it is only to tears of frustration and anger, not to tears of joy or gratitude. This does not restore the moral order of the universe, it unhinges it, sending humanity’s concept of right and wrong spinning out of its orbit ... The verdict on Saddam does not shout justice, it shouts justification. It means to justify the American occupation of Iraq, notwithstanding the deception it was founded on, by reminding the world what a bastard Saddam is. And what a service Bush did the world by invading his country, raining bombs as smart as Bush is on the residents of Baghdad, and unleashing policies of mass destruction on a world the American Caesar (of the Las Vegas variety) barely understands and a people he couldn’t care about. Of course, Saddam is a bastard. But there’s a bigger bastard halfway across the globe, and there’s no court trying him.Yeah, Choy, it's called "Western-style Democracy," and that's really all we've got, plus the silly lil things called a democratic Constitution that guarantees them.What, you just punish him by beating him in elections?
But if you like the bitter taste of Conrado de Quiros' bile while he's having a shock attack expostulating about his most favorite Americans (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld) -- there's more where above came from, including an equating of Saddam Hussein to Macario Sakay! I would have thought a better Filipino analog to Saddam would be Ferdinand Marcos, his Little Brown Brother, whom I am sure, even he would've supported the overthrow of, say by a force of US Marines led by Filipino American soldiers. I daresay, that when Ronald Reagan told Marcos to "cut and cut cleanly," he abandoned one of America's sonofabitch dictators in Asia and made the restoration of democracy possible and the Edsa Revolution "peaceful." (It WAS the least Reagan could do, but few know it was Paul Wolfowitz made him do it.) But I wonder if the curious reference de Quiros makes to "the American Caesar of the Las Vegas variety" must've been inspired by his recent partying with Filipino-Americans in that blooming City of the American Southwestern Desert a few weeks ago. You see, the funny lil secret about the most eloquent of our anti-American writers today, is that they learnt their hatred for America and democracy from other Americans, the original source being of course U.S. Anti-Imperialist League. But Conrado de Quiros, who thinks Baghdad is no Nuremberg, is no Mark Twain either. I guess what Conrad does not yet get is that democracy is a labor of centuries, that the lifetimes of nations outspan those of individual human beings, whose effects ought to be judged in the longer run than this week's news. Or even next month's or next year's.
2 comments:
MB,
It's an Iraqi Court. Granted it was set up by the United States, but it IS an Iraqi court and there is no reason to suspect that the charges of genocide are false or trumped up. Is it being used by the Republicans for politics. Sure it is. And there is nothing wrong in my opinion with pointing to Saddam as the reason for the war. Was it worth it? I say that remains to be seen.
Here's the case against killing saddam hussein, from christopher hitchens.
hithchens and de quiros are both from the Left. one supports the iraq war and bush. the other is against both.
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