One died peacefully of old age this week, surrounded by family and friends.
One died cursing as he was hanged this week, surrounded by enemies.
One came to the Presidency by accident.
One scraped and clawed his way to the Presidency.
One struggled against the inflationary shockwaves of the 1970s.
One rode them to riches.
One was content to be seen as an ordinary man.
One fostered a powerful cult of personality.
One was an ineffectual bumbler who tried to heal his nation.
One terrorized his people and divided them against each other.
The tyrant was killed in a nation sliding toward anarchy.
The moderate died in a nation sliding toward autocracy.
Both were proud nationalists who believed god was on their side.
Both have America to thank for their rise to power... and for how they met their end.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
A Tale of Two Men
Posted by Dr. Strangelove at 12:32 AM
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3 comments:
Yes, the irony of the timing of these things has struck me as well. Every week on Weekend Edition-Sunday (NPR), they do a "voices in the news" segment where they play clips from various news stories throughout the week. This is where the show starts. I found it telling that they played the clip from a report of Saddam's hanging before a report on President Ford's death.
This is a clip from the Olberman Countdown on President Ford. I thought it was interesting. One thing Dr. S skipped was that both men left regrettable legacies. Ford gave us Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and to a degree Bush Jr. Hussein gave us an active Sunni insurgency, and a nation that was in complete decay. Ironic that the two legacies are so closly tied.
// posted by USWest
It seems so unfair to compare Hussein to Ford in any way. Ford was an accidental president, a well-meaning man who made bad choices, like pardoning Nixon. Hussein was a mass murderer of historic proportions, until he settled into the role of tinpot dictator about a decade before the GOP decided that he was a new Hitler for domestic political reasons.
I was ashamed to see the photos of Saddam Hussein being hanged by black-hooded men, which - had I not known the cast - would have looked like the same hooded men that have gone on TV to behead their captives.
Does anyone really think that one more corpse will heal Iraq?
// posted by LTG
Yes, I believe Saddam Hussein's corpse may help Iraq. I have come to believe that brutal exercise of power is one of the few things that the collective Iraqi psyche will respect. Until now, the Maliki government has been viewed as, "a bunch of men hiding in the green zone," (to quote commentator Tony Blankley) ...and they were largely ignored. Now their enemies are calling for Maliki to be hanged. In an odd way, it's a sign of respect. It's a start.
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