Saddam Hussein Last Letter: Plea not to hate but to live as example of love, including forgiveness

[emilynghiem]

Found this while looking up the costs of the Iraq War. I think in this context, the concept of "struggle" and "jihad" is closer to the spiritual Muslim meaning, and not the Jihadist warcry for destruction like Armageddon.

Saddam Hussein - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

Saddam was hanged on the first day of Eid ul-Adha, 30 December 2006, despite his wish to be shot (which he felt would be more dignified).[107] The execution was carried out atCamp Justice, an Iraqi army base in Kadhimiya, a neighborhood of northeast Baghdad.

Video of the execution was recorded on a mobile phone and his captors could be heard insulting Saddam. The video was leaked to electronic media and posted on the Internet within hours, becoming the subject of global controversy.[108] It was later claimed by the head guard at the tomb where his body remains that Saddam's body was stabbed six times after the execution.[109]

Not long before the execution, Saddam's lawyers released his last letter. The following includes several excerpts:

“ To the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity,
Many of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgment, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state ... and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.

You have known your brother and leader very well and he never bowed to the despots and, in accordance with the wishes of those who loved him, remained a sword and a banner.

This is how you want your brother, son or leader to be ... and those who will lead you (in the future) should have the same qualifications.

Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs, or, He will postpone that ... so let us be patient and depend on Him against the unjust nations.

Remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence ... I call on you not to hate, because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice.

I also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and peoples. Anyone who repents — whether in Iraq or abroad — you must forgive him.

You should know that among the aggressors, there are people who support your struggle against the invaders, and some of them volunteered for the legal defence of prisoners, including Saddam Hussein ... some of these people wept profusely when they said goodbye to me.

Dear faithful people, I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any faithful, honest believer ... God is Great ... God is great ... Long live our nation ... Long live our great struggling people ... Long live Iraq, long live Iraq ... Long live Palestine ... Long live jihad and the mujahedeen.

Saddam Hussein President and Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Mujahed Armed Forces

Additional clarification note:

I have written this letter, because the lawyers told me that the so-called criminal court — established and named by the invaders — will allow the so-called defendants the chance for a last word. But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the sentence — dictated by the invaders — without presenting the evidence. I wanted the people to know this.[110]
”
— Letter by Saddam Hussein

 

[Sunni Man]

Saddam was a very different person than the western media made him out to be. .....

 

[Tom Sweetnam]

Sniff, and here I thought the son-of-a-bitch murdered a million of his own people and dragged on a war with Iran that saw 900,000 die, including countless thousands of Iranian child-soldiers aged 10 & 11. So as if Hitler had said an Act of Contrition before he pulled the trigger, Saddam too is granted redemption for scribbling some vapid patchouli oil & unicorn rejoinder to a life spent as a monster. People are such idiots.

 

[emilynghiem]

Sniff, and here I thought the son-of-a-bitch murdered a million of his own people and dragged on a war with Iran that saw 900,000 die, including countless thousands of Iranian child-soldiers aged 10 & 11. So as if Hitler had said an Act of Contrition before he pulled the trigger, Saddam too is granted redemption for scribbling some vapid patchouli oil & unicorn rejoinder to a life spent as a monster. People are such idiots.

Sounds like what people say about Bush.

I know regular working people who say that Bush, Cheney and Rice should be charged with war crimes and hanged.
And these are not violent warmongering people but just regular folks who see the "invasion of Iraq as genocide of innocent civilians." So if peaceful people can call for the execution of very civilized leaders in US govt, then anyone can be a war criminal, even someone who appears civilized to others.

Even the people who ran the concentration camps exterminating Jews were "regular working people" who stopped to take "breaks from work" even to sing hymnals as a church choir, before returning to what they considered their work duties. Peter Loth shows videotape of them singing in a choir, and I saw photos published of "everyday people" stopping to take a group photo on a bridge, just like anyone else does. The most horrifying thing is realizing that everyday people commit these acts of war and genocide; these are not "animals" that do this, but people just like us.

It doesn't make sense to us, so that's why the conscience has this need to project and distance these people from ourselves, has to demonize in some way to explain how could someone do such a thing. The habit of blaming the rape victim also comes from a need to explain how something bad can happen to a regular person; the mind wants to know there was some fault on the side of the victim to make us feel safe that this "couldn't happen to us."