[I think he would be happy just to see the US revealed as so superior to Iraq in civilized values, as Tom Friedman is. (CAUTION: GRAPHIC GLOATING AND GRANDSTANDING FOLLOW -- NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.)]
January 3, 2007
A Hanging and a Funeral
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Last Saturday was a strange day. It started with the hanging of Saddam Hussein. The more I read about the hasty, quasi-legal maneuvers used by Iraq’s Shiite leaders to rush Saddam to the gallows on a Muslim holiday, Id al-Adha, and the more I watched the grainy cellphone video of the event, in which a guard is heard taunting Saddam with chants of “Moktada! Moktada!” — the Shiite cleric whose death squads have killed hundreds of Sunnis — and the more I read of the insults Saddam spat back, the more it resembled a tribal revenge ritual rather than the culmination of a constitutional process in which America should be proud to have participated. ...
But as I said, Saturday was a strange day. After watching Saddam’s hanging in the morning, I was sitting at my computer late in the afternoon and suddenly heard the strains of “My country ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty” being played on the TV in the next room. When I checked what was going on, I saw President Ford’s coffin being unloaded from Air Force One.
I have to admit I got a lump in my throat watching that scene and listening to that stirring melody. Saddam’s execution was a snapshot of a country divided. Gerald Ford’s funeral was a snapshot of a country united — political supporters and opponents alike paying tribute to a president, who was surrounded by an honor guard representing every color of the American rainbow and whose place in history was secured by an act of pardon and national healing.
How fortunate to live in a country where this is the political norm, built up over generations. ...
<http://select.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/opinion/03friedman.html?hp>
Carl
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