Justice? or Just Us?
An excerpt from a book I've read that Heidi posted on her blog got me thinking about our concept of "justice" as a people. We hear that Saddam Hussein is being hanged after his country was invaded and his regime brought down by a foreign power. Tried in what could be called a kangaroo court, it is a terrible and inhumane way to kill a man after taking away his dignity. People are rejoicing because, apparently, he was a monster who committed genocide and massacred innocent people. Probably true, however the source of this information for us was the media which people treat as an all-knowing oracle, albeit selectively...
In another more far-flung corner of the media we can read about the history of a country, the Government of which has, through imperialist oppression, contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Latin America and just recently (in 2003) started a war which claimed 655,000 lives in Iraq. A war which is completely unjustifiable. I wonder if there are people rejoicing right now and saying "bravo, Saddam Hussein deserves to be hanged" even though they might be Australian, a country where the death penalty is not even legal. I wonder if some of those people are not the same people that supported this war in the first place. A war that has claimed 655,000 thousand lives. 655,000 thousand. That is over 200 September 11s. I wonder if Saddam's blood has been worth it. I wonder about the people that supported this war with their thoughts, voices and votes... people who live in supposedly democratic countries and are represented by their Governments... people without who's support and/or acquiscence this war would never have happened... I wonder if these people look down at their hands sometimes and see flecks of blood, Iraqi blood. Now tell me, eternal purveyors of "justice", who deserves to be hanged?
posted by LX @ 4:46 PM
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