Wednesday, January 03, 2007

...and for that I respect Saddam Hussein

Have you seen Saddam Hussein's "leaked" cell phone video of the execution? It's not for the light hearted as the video goes on to record scenes of Saddam's lifeless body, post the execution! The strange thing is right before Saddam is executed -as you have probably heard on the news- the people in the room start to taunt him. Saddam's reaction to this taunting surprised me, he was very calm and in a very low tone and a small grin on his face he said: Is that the bravery of the Arab people?

This really blows my mind, how can you be seconds away from your death and even when humiliated, you not only keep your cool, but even better to utter such a well-thought statement that coldly and bitterly insults those who taunt you?

This statement, specially that Saddam said it in classical Arabic, is amazing as Arabs -specially in the older times- usually were very proud and wrote poems about how brave a person is or how generous. Bravery specially is regraded as a key trait that is appreciated. So a statement like this -I'd think- clearly undermines the bravery of those who dared only to insult him when he's about to be hanged.

I despise Saddam for the dictator he was, yet I respect how he faced his humiliating death.

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