To: Israel Shamir Subject: RE: Your responses to Murder Most Foul
Hussein brothers did not need to die in an imperial lynch on supposed despots of the Iraqi people. They could have been convicted by an appropriate international court. But not by a partial one like the Hague caricature of a tribunal for war crimes in former Yugoslavia. Still better would be a trial in Iraq, something the Imperium apparently dislikes, since it had Milosevic captured and brought to Hague, against Yugoslav and international laws. If the Imperium was authorized to capture the brothers legitimately convicted in absentia, the court's instruction would surely not read "attack Iraq illegally" and "kill". Normal courts do not break the law in order to enforce it. How does the world's best army justify the killing? "Kusai and Udai resisted." Perhaps instead of destructive missiles the army should have used a temporarily incapacitating gas? Or besiege the young men and a boy for a while before they gave up and surrendered. Brave American soldiers killed, for they received a political order disguised as "take out this military target". There may be reasons for such order. US elites have learned that demonisation of opponent's leader is not 100 percent effective. Western, Islamist and Croat neo-Ustashe propaganda painted Milosevic and Serbs as the worst since Hitler. But the lengthy show trial in Hague is not able to find evidence of the alleged crimes. From the Imperium's viewpoint, better if Milosevic was killed in 1999, when intelligent, precise missiles hit his house. This way Milosevic could not embarass NATO today, speaking as a "prosecutor" from his defendant's position in the Hague kangaroo court. Kusai and Udai may have been more useful dead than alive for a similar reason. Perhaps this was to be covered up when Imperial spokesmen gave silly justification for the hunt. If indeed the Hussein clan stood behind the revenge attacks on occupying forces in Iraq, the murder will only escalate guerilla activity. Besides, Imperium's argument does not hold water, since not just Saddam's sympathizers but most of the Iraqi fractions despise the occupation. Finally, it is plausible that, unable to get Saddam, the Imperium killed his sons and a grandson. This way it also partly redeemed its "honour" that was lost when despite solemn promises and thousands of tons of bombs the Imperium could not do away with Osama bin Laden. Piotr Bein -----Original Message----- From: Israel Shamir [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: July 26, 2003 1:17 PM Subject: Your responses to Murder Most Foul Dear Reader, There were many witty and soul-searching responses to my eulogy of Saddam's sons (at the bottom of this email). Here are some of the best. Some readers approve of my response, others approve of Bush, you can read both - we are not the New York Times :-) For many readers it was easier to condemn Bush than to praise the princes. I do admire these murdered young men, whether they were good or bad in the days of their father's rule, for they chose to fight, not to surrender, not to run away to Switzerland. They set a glorious example of princely behaviour by remaining with their people. I distrust the official reports of their previous misbehaviour, as much as I distrusted the WMD fairy tale, but even if some of it is true, we remember Prince Hal who was a drinking buddy of Falstaff until, as Henry V, he routed the French army at Agincourt. Israel Shamir ----------------------------------------------------- MURDER MOST FOUL By Israel Shamir War is crime, but this is the manly crime defying effeminate mores and rigid society. The most convinced pacifist can be carried away by the sight of charging cavalry, attacking troops, roaring tanks and fighter jets taking off a desert strip. Not in vain, women admired warriors, poets sung their mighty deeds, and priests anointed their heads. We can fetch a Roman adage or a Koranic verse, a line from Shakespeare or Nietzsche to praise a leader of men and disregard the costs of war. We can forgive a bloodshed, it's sordid affairs that can't ever be forgiven. Murder of the deposed Arab ruler's young sons is the ultimate sordid crime of President Bush. It transformed him from a fool into a villain, from the dubious vanquisher of a disarmed state into a vile murderer, from a deceiver into a bloody crook, from the vainglorious chieftain on board of the aircraft carrier into a vicious monster. Whatever we think of Saddam Hussein, cynical and cruel murder of his sons is an abysmal collapse into archaic mode. This is worse than Napoleon's murder of young Duc d'Enghien, worse than the crimes of Richard III. Stalin and Hitler, Churchill and Roosevelt killed millions, but they did not hunt down children of their adversaries. If the president would tear their noble hearts and gobble them, dripping blood on his starched shirt he would not be more disgusting. It is a moral collapse of the ruling class: his schools, Harvard and Yale, once aristocratic breeding ground of American gentlemen, reached a moral nadir under the guidance of Lawrence Summers the Platitudinous, Samuel Huntington the Trivial, Leo Strauss the Godless and Alan Dershowitz the Torturer. Probably Sing Sing would produce a more suitable ruling class at a lesser cost. It is a moral collapse of the army. Hundreds of heavily armed American soldiers who participated in the execution brought shame on themselves and the Armed Forces. Copycatting the Israeli assassins, they shot missiles at unprotected men. They are not soldiers anymore, their place is with hangmen. Their cowardly deed will delegate them into the lower recesses of Hell, within a shouting distance from Judas. It is a moral collapse of the media. This docile tool of Empire stepped into moral abyss beyond the cowardly murder. TV pundits discussed price of blood in dollars and shekels, they argued whether the murder will put paid to the Iraqi resistance. The TV screens were turned into stakes posting the bloodied heads of two handsome young men, a scary sight, but even scarier was the joyous crowd of brokers and investors at Wall Street, celebrating the Dow Jones' rise by guzzling Arab blood. It was not the first vicious murder in mankind's history; but the first one met with equanimity; a bloody sacrifice to Mammon. The healing spasm of moral disgust did not shake the sick society. The dead and torn body of the fourteen-year-old boy, a grandchild of Saddam Hussein, will haunt Bush whenever he looks at his own children and grandchildren, like Banquo's bloody ghost on Macbeth's feast. Indeed, the Texan killer of Hussein's sons is but a remorseless replica of the Scottish murderer of Macduff's sons. In a Christian land he would be excommunicated, for a vengeful murderer of his enemies' children has no place in the Kingdom of Christ. Not in vain he befriended Sharon and Perle who are used to laud murder of Haman's children at the feast of Purim. Noble and brave, the sons of Saddam Hussein did not escape to a faraway land; they did not pocket billions for surrender, they did not lounge in Minsk or Riyadh as the dishonest mainstream media suggested. The Young Lions of Baghdad, they fought the superior forces of aggressor, and fell defending their homeland. Kusai and Udai were together in their lives; and in their death they were not divided. They will be forever cherished in the collective memory of mankind, with other tragic and courageous fighters against the Empire from Vercingetorix the Gaul to the Sioux chief Sitting Bull, from Che Guevara of Santa Clara to Abdel Kader al Husseini of Qastal. Their last stand and their death redeemed Iraq and returned self esteem to the Arabs. They died in flesh but remained alive in spirit; their murderers are but living dead. When the Middle East will regain its independence, their names will be written on the precious porphyry of our monuments. Israel Shamir is an Israeli journalist based in Jaffa. His articles can be found on the site www.israelshamir.net You may freely display this article on the Web or forward it, but ask for permission in order to publish as hard copy. Serbian News Network - SNN [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.antic.org/
