Posted by Jost on June 11, 2006, at 16:23:57
In reply to Re: Is anyone suggesting » Bobby, posted by Dinah on June 11, 2006, at 15:53:17
There's no joy in killing anyone, including Zarqawi. But he was as close as one can get to evil, although he doesn't seem to be alone in that, in the world today. He just seemed for a time to personify and, in that sense, to help us feel we could identify and control it. When we think about what's happening in so many places in the world, it becomes overwhelming.
Sometimes, one person can inspire and organize and personally spread a contagion for such brutality. Whether Zarqawi was such a person, I don't know. Whether, even if he was, the contagion has spread out of control, I also don't know.
The misplaced happiness about his death could have come from the wish that there was an easy answer--that this horrible mess we've created could somehow be turned into a reasonable situation, and come to some good.
There's probably a lot of underground guilt around about what we've done in Iraq. We would feel a whole lot better if we could find someone to blame and then, if they were gone, see it healed.
Jost
poster:Jost
thread:654613
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20060610/msgs/655570.html