Dancing in the Streets

By now, anybody who is anybody in blogdom has posted about the capture of Saddam Hussein by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division on Saturday. I was so involved in other real-life matters (putting up the Christmas tree, rehearsals and performance of our “Festival of Lessons and Carols,” Christmas shopping) that I heard the news only when the pastor offered up thanks and hope in prayer on Sunday morning. I had to ask the person sitting next to me, “What good news?” before I heard about it.

Like most people around the world, I am thankful and hopeful. I pray that this means the attacks against our military, Iraqis and our allies become less frequent and eventually end. I pray that the Iraqi people will receive the justice they have awaited for so long. I pray that a stable, democratic Iraqi government is one step closer than it was on Saturday morning.

But I am no so naïve that I believe it is the answer to all of our problems. Nor do I think it automatically guarantees W.’s re-election. I don’t much care. Conservatives still have issues with Bush’s rampant spending, and as Paul Musgrave pointed out in comments on Josh Claybourn’s post:

Some Democrats are stupid enough to think that today clinches it for the GOP; some Republicans are dumb enough to think the same. But a lot can happen in a year.

I am surprised that Saddam let himself be taken without resistance. I expected that he would try to go out as a hero, in a blaze of gunfire. Does this humiliate him in the eyes of his followers? I certainly hope so.

Commentators call Saddam a survivor. But what that really means is the most important thing to Saddam is saving his own sorry skin. Is that the kind of man, is that the cause I would want to blow myself up for? Saddam’s cause is and always has been Saddam. I hope Saddam’s loyalists wake up to the fact that he never has cared a whit for their welfare and that their best interests lie in building a democratic Iraq for all Iraqis.

Comments

[Rev. Mike]

But what that really means is the most important thing to Saddam is saving his own sorry skin.

When all else is said and done, Saddam is a sociopath. Thus it comes as no surprise that self-preservation was his default position. It will prove interesting over the ensuing months to see how Saddam behaves in captivity, possibly enagaging in cat and mouse games right up until the end, should the Iraqis choose to execute him.