Ruinous

Update 3: Riverbend from Baghdad considers what she calls Saddam's "lynching" -- it ain't pretty.

Update 2: Wow. Radigan has just excerpted an utterly fascinating piece by Jack Weatherford (author of the seminal Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World) that was published in the L.A. Times a couple of days ago. Keying off Saddam Hussein's last public speech in which he "denounced the invading Americans as 'the Mongols of this age,' a reference to the last time infidels had conquered his country, in 1258," Weatherford goes on to provide a detailed compare and contrast of Chingghis Khan's strategic and political genius with Bush & Co.'s monumental ineptitude. A must-read.

Update: Riverbend's back, the girl blogger from Baghdad, after a two-month hiatus. Her heartbreaking summary of Iraq's year ought to stop the keyboard warriors from dancing on Saddam's grave, but it won't.

In the wake of Saddam Hussein's execution, I offer an educational look into what passes for religious thinking in at least one prominent Christian evangelist who's set up camp in Mongolia.

Shantideva, as always, has a ready response:

"If unhappiness befalls your enemy,
Why should this be a cause for your rejoicing?
The wishes of your mind alone,
Will not in fact contrive his injury.

"And if your hostile wishes were to bring them harm,
Again, what cause of joy is that to you?
'Why, then I should be satisfied!' -- are these your thoughts?
Is anything more ruinous than that?"

The Vatican's response exhibited some sanity, but please tell me that State-sponsored murder has not become a mainstream Christian value in the United States. I'm sorry to report that Mongolia still retains the death penalty, often carried out in secret, according to this year's UN report.

It is well-known that His Holiness the Dalai Lama wept upon learning of the death of Mao Tse-Tung, the man responsible for the massacre of upward of 1,000,000 Tibetans and the wholesale destruction of much of Tibet's religious culture. Why? Because the Dalai Lama has profoundly trained in the heart of Buddhist practice, cultivating impartial compassion for all sentient beings. And he knew that through the exacting law of cause and effect, Mao would experience extraordinary suffering for countless future lifetimes as the result of his actions.

Buddhists do not consider this "justice," because we do not acknowledge the existence of absolute evil, nor an external divine judge. The Buddhist goal is the eradication of suffering for oneself and others equally. Buddhists are encouraged in this pursuit by the certainty that since suffering has an identifiable cause (desire born of ignorance), the removal of that cause will result in the cessation of suffering. Deliberately taking the life of any sentient being is a cause for future suffering, and taking a human life is especially heavy karma. To rejoice in such actions incurs a very similar karma, since its source is the same sort of ignorance.

There was also a particularly loathsome bit in the L.A. Times article (third page) on the execution:

"Hussein's execution coincided with the end of the hajj, the seasonal Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Most Sunnis began Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, after morning prayers today; most Shiites will begin Sunday morning.

"[Defense lawyer Najib] Nuaimi said that [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri] Maliki, a Shiite, had pushed for Hussein's execution during the holiday to 'make a gift during Eid to his party.'

"Hussein 'will be the sacrificial lamb for the Shiites, and the Iranians in particular,' said Nuaimi, referring to many Muslims' practice of slaughtering lambs after pilgrimage for celebratory feasts."

Beginning with the Buddha's own teaching, the "religious" sacrifice of animals has been regarded as abhorrent, an indication that people are still locked in a barbaric state of mind. How much more so the sacrifice of a human being?

Comments

[Rachel H]

I've just come back from reading Riverbend's blog and now yours for the second time. I'm not a good enough writer to put into words the profound sadness I feel for the world today.

[cyndie]

I do like the budhist ideal.For the many who've suffered, they think justice was done. However In seeing the tapes of Mr.
Hussein, all I could see was saddness in a tired old man. I believe this did not resovle anything and could be used for much more violence. Peace to all in the new year.cw

[sean]

After reading your post the first time, I tried to write a comment and just couldn't. Then my bloglines site noted that you had a new post and I went to Riverbend's site. I used to read her blog a lot but stopped because it made me so disgusted.

I read her post with great discomfort because I know what she writes is true. Of course we don't get this kind of news or this kind of report in the US — since most media is owned by big corporations who profit from the conflict. It's funny that we brag about our Freedom of Press.

I still don't know what to write except that I hope the world knows that not all Americans support the Bush regime and not all of us were tricked into believing his lies. I believe he is a war criminal and should be tried for it.

[Pixie]

I find myself in tears, feeling nothing but a huge sense of loving compassion for all involved.
The simple truth of Shantideva's words are a teaching I wish the world could see

XXPixieXX

[Christian]

I believe that a majority of American churches are publicly against the death penalty. The problem lies in that vengeance feelings are good in the heart of the victims and of who sympathises with them only. More abstractly, there is the interpretation of the US Constitution about happiness, cruel punishment etc. As well as the "You shall not kill", whose meaning at the times of the Old Testament was more "You shall not kill, otherwise..." Skimming over Mr Terry's post is interesting enough. Examples of death penalty are common in the Old Testament and there is a famous one the the New Testament.

I cannot help thinking about the Amish nowadays...

[KayInNewMexico]

Like Sean, I hope the rest of the world does not judge America by Bush and his actions. Likewise, I hope that the world does not judge Christianity by Thomas Terry.

It is sad that many (most?) of the members of any faith community do not live as their founders would have wished. Jesus taught that we should love God and love our neighbor as ourselves; that we should judge not lest we be judged; that we should love our enemies. It is obvious, though, that most Christians do not conduct themselves according to these admonitions on a constant, day-to-day basis. If every one of our actions was done in accordance with just these three things, how different our faith community would be!

It is often difficult to follow Jesus' teachings. I only hope that in the cosmic scheme of things my efforts and intentions count, because like everyone else, I fall short no matter how hard I try.

[sis Laura]

"Here's another saying that deserves a second look 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' Is that going to get us anywhere? here's what I propose:'Don't hit back at all.' If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues you for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your gest coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life; No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
You're familiar with the old writen law, 'love your friend', and it's unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemay.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best- the sun to warm and the rain to nourish - to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty." Jesus, as quoted in Matthew 25, The Message version

[Konchog]

My dear sister! That version of the excerpt from the Sermon on the Mount sounds so much like my own teacher, both in style and substance, it's eerie. And I agree. If even a slim majority of the world actually lived their lives according to Christ's injunctions in that talk alone...well, it would look like a miracle, wouldn't it?

And Kay? If, as a Christian, you took the time to send a package of coffee, etc., to a chilly Buddhist monk in Mongolia (I'm using the mug right this minute), well, I have to think there must be some kind of heaven waiting for you somewhere!

[Vedran]

Happy New Year Konchog! May everything be auspicious for you in 2007!

[Zendette]

A Jordanian friend, who is a moderate, was angry at the Eid Holiday timing, but not nessarily at the act of the execution itself.

This morning, a friend from Iran pinged me on chat to ask what Israelis were saying. He was surprised that Israelis didn't seem to care one way or another. There is no death penalty in Israel and I heard no one voice satisfaction at the death of Hussein. Why voice satisfaction when he's no longer relevent?

The Shias seem pleased with the execution, but the rest of the Arabs are angry, even the ones who weren't particularly fond of Hussein.

Nice to see that Riverbend's posting again.

[Christopher]

"but please tell me that State-sponsored murder has not become a mainstream Christian value in the United States."

Okay; state-sponsered murder is not a mainstream Christian value in the United States.

And if you believe that, there's a bridge in New York I'd love to sell to you...

[Sarabaite]

Have you read "Three Kingdoms"? There's one war expedition that is led by a Han advisor (Kongming) against the Man people. (Who are they?) It's called the "Southern Espedition," and by the animals described in the story and other details, I've guessed that it took place in an area bordering Mesopotamia. Perhaps you know the history of the setting better?

Anyway, the story was probably written 900 years ago, and it's set about 1800 years ago. Despite this expanse of time, the way the advisors recommends settling the differences between the two nations seems a heck of a lot better then what's going on today.

As Kongming notes, it does nothing to take a city when you know the people there will never be agreeable a foreign governement being set up there. As soon as forces leave, the same problems return. It's better to negotiate with the government itself to some kind of compromise or working understanding. Also, as they left, advisors asked Kongming, "Why don't we leave some of our people in charge?" He replied by posing the exact problem facing us today. (1)That area has always been, and always will be unstable, (2)The people there will never trust or accept foreigners in governement, (3)If Kongming were to leave people to supervise the government, they would need military protection due the the people's mistrust and dislike for foreigners, and finally (4)Keeping long-term military forces in place was impractical, expensive, and doomed to fail. Providing adequately for the military there would be impossible.

Rather than hunt down the leaders and exterminate them, Kongming persues the most influential one (Meng Tuo) and catches-and-releases him seven times, each time trying to earn Meng's respect. Eventually, the two come to a working relationship. It's not ideal, but it's better than ongoing problems and undisguised hostility on both sides. For years, the UN's inspectors did just that with Hussein. The result was not perfect, but it beat the heck out of this current mess.

[Ariel]

And people have the nerve to refer to Chinggis Khaan as a 'barbarian'...
I can't say I'm sad to see Saddam go -- he was a brutal murderer. Unfortunmately, the way this was carried out just proves he was right in his criticism of the arbitrary way this Maliki gov't functions.
The new government could have handled this better -- put him in prison, or sent him to the States or to the Hague as a war criminal for permanent detention. This is just another nail in the coffin of good government for Iraq.

There were other options. And if they decided to keep the death penalty, it certainly could have been done more humanely.
This was the type of circus you'd see in the 1840s Wild West, from the footage I saw.

[Sarabaite]

I was just checking in to see if anyone knew who the "Man People" where 1800 years ago, and where they lived. (question in my post above)

It's interesting to me that I haven't heard much of an update in the news (the US news, anyway) about any fallout from the execution. Admittedly, I could stand to read my webnews more thoroughly, but I was wondering what everyone else had heard. The biggest related thing in our news lately is how Bush has replaced many important positions (getting rid of anyone who disagrees with him, it seems) in a part of his push to step up the numbers in Iraq. I'm glad the new house speaker has promised to fight his plan, but who knows how successful she'll be. It hasn't been tried before!