Paul Boutin

Sajid Farooq’s report for the San Francisco Examiner, titled “Bay Area Iraqis subdued in support,” captures not just local Iraqis’ ambivalence, but mine. Selected quotes:

“It leaves some scars on the Iraqi mind and people because remember, he ruled Iraq for 35 years and we have to admit that this guy has a lot of followers that we canít discount.”

“I think itís one step on a long road on, should I say, applying the law in Iraq. I wouldnít call it any kind of a sense of happiness because vengeance is not a good human character. But itís good for Iraq to show a break from the past.”

“Hopefully now we will have a new chance and a new time and hopefully something new will happen.”

As a normally peace-loving guy who felt ready to go to Afghanistan and find Bin Laden myself a few years ago (remember that feeling?), I can’t ignore the complex, conflicted symbolism of hanging Saddam Hussein now. It wasn’t that long ago that President Carter, rumor had it, was encouraging Saddam to invade Iran.

I’m relieved! I’m disappointed! I’m confused! Jimmy Carter should come out here and give me a hug.

UPDATE: Chris Hitchens puts it more pragmatically.

A well-chosen set of excerpts by Washington journalist I.F. Stone, who self-published I.F. Stone’s Weekly from 1953 to 1971.

The collection reads better if you find the printed version in this month’s Utne magazine, which I did while waiting for my espresso at Peet’s Coffee in the basement of Whole Foods. But this online version has all the same words. Plus if you’re like me, you won’t have to worry about being seen reading Utne in Peet’s - at Whole Foods! In San Francisco! In Pacific Heights for God’s sake!

I think Stone would’ve been able to explain the complications better than me. By the time you get to the part where he writes, “If battle is joined and our country polarized, as both the revolutionists and the repressionists wish, it is the better and not the worse side of America which will be destroyed,” you’ll see what I mean. Starbucks or Peet’s? We can work it out.