Violence can not break the cycle of violence

The validity of the court. The speed of the execution. These things will be debated. But in Saddam Hussein’s trial and punishment, none could miss the fact that rightly or wrongly, the executioner caught up with the one who ordered thousands of executions. And all of this happened, we now know, as Saddam was verbally taunted, not unlike the way condemned persons were insulted under Saddam’s cruel rule of Iraq.

In the prologue to the Gospel of John, read in thousands of churches on the Sunday after Christmas, John writes “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

These were interesting words to consider on a weekend when the news was dominated by the hanging of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein for “crimes against humanity.” Light and darkness still contend with one another.

There is no denying that Saddam’s reign in Iraq was one of darkness rather than light. Arrogantly brutal, he was a cruel dictator in a world where tyrants have been all too common. Hussein was a nationalist who used the conflict among the factions of Muslims in his country (Sunnis and Shi'ites) to his advantage creating a tension not unlike the Roman Catholic/Protestant fighting in Northern Ireland. Then he used that tension to create control by giving power to his own Sunnis in exchange for building up his own base of support.

The Shi'ite /Sunni conflict goes back to the year 632 and is a disagreement over who was to succeed the Prophet Mohammed. Today, 85 percent of Muslims around the world are Sunni, but they are the minority in Iraq.

Much of the Shi'ite/Sunni violence tearing that nation apart is due to the way Sunnis found favor under Saddam and oppressed the Shi'ites. Now Shi'ites look for revenge and Sunnis are fighting back. This is why insurgents dominate Anbar Province where Sunnis are in the majority. All this sectarian violence stems from Hussein, who seemed from afar to be a Muslim only when it suited his political needs.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, said, “Saddam’s execution puts an end to all the pathetic gambles on a return to dictatorship.” He was pleased to tell the press of hearing Saddam’s neck snap as his government no longer has to worry about overthrow by Saddam himself, which helps that government in its own bid to gain and hold on to power.

But everyone knows and our own president has already said that, “Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice will not end the violence in Iraq.” Darkness can never be dispelled by darkness and the way to break a cycle of violence is never with more violence.

Jesus nonviolently opposed Roman oppression and Jewish collusion with it. He brought life and light to a time of death and darkness by preaching, teaching and living love. Light does not overcome darkness by using the tools and techniques of darkness to shed light.

Killing Saddam could create a martyr, while letting him live could have allowed for his redemption. Do you believe I am naïve in thinking Hussein could have been neutralized as a threat without putting him to death? Recall that Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega is currently cooling his heals in a federal prison in Miami 40 years for racketeering, drug trafficking and money-laundering. No one in Panama is worried about his return to power.

Or look to the Nuremberg Trials which followed World War II. Yes, they did sentence some to death. But none of those who received life sentences ever posed a threat to Germany or the stability of Europe again. Those who received life sentences were as effectively dealt with as those who were put to death. And for someone who craves power as Hussein seemed to, living on in increasing irrelevance would seem a punishment worse than death.

Why wouldn’t we want to put someone to death for such atrocities? Because in doing so, we create a scapegoat. We attach all the ills of a country to one person and then kill that person to dispense with evil. But one person, or even a small group of people, is never the whole story. With the dictator gone, the system that put them in place will largely remain to create a new oppressor.

This can be seen in the execution of Saddam Hussein, in which he was taunted by those around him. Those now in control still carried out a court-ordered execution like a Wild West lynching. Countering darkness is not so easy as removing one person.

Rather than removing the one scapegoat, it takes an ongoing campaign of letting light shine in the darkness revealing the problems all through a system. Instead of creating and eliminating a scapegoat, we are better served to work to dismantle the systems that fuel dictatorial power. For example, the end of World War I gave Hitler more power rather than less as it fueled German discontent and led to a surge in German nationalism. The end of World War II, in which we helped rebuild Japan and Germany had vastly different results.

Causing light to shine in the darkness in the real world of national governments is possible. The best example is the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa at the end of Apartheid. Through that commission deep and lasting change was made possible as a whole system was held accountable rather than a few people. Those who suffered under Apartheid faced those who caused the suffering and the whole pattern of abuse was uncovered and dismantled.

That’s what light shining in the darkness looks like at the national level. At the personal level, it could involve praying for the few family and friends of Saddam Hussein who are in real mourning as they need light in their darkness. In every case shining light in the darkness means showing love in times and places when love could least be expected.

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)

previous         Return to Religion Column page       next