Shut Up!

Ali at Free Iraqi is one of the Middle Eastern bloggers I read every day. His post of a couple days ago, about the trial of Saddam Hussein, got the ponder going. Ali ends the post with this:

These two were very polite with the judge all the time (Barzan was even begging for mercy on one session) but as soon as they saw a simple Iraqi citizen with no power (or so they think) they regained that arrogant look and assumed the faces of the rulers again! How coward and how stupid at the same time! But it was more than great (and surprisingly shocking) to hear the words of that simple man from Dujail saying to Barzan, “Shut up!”.

Ali — the “Free Iraqi", blogger — finds it “surprisingly shocking” to hear an ordinary citizen tell Saddam Hussein to shup up. The more I think about that statement, the more sympathy I feel for Ali and the other “ordinary” Iraqi citizens. What a remarkable transition for them these past few years have been…

Near the beginning of his post, Ali says this:

There I saw an average Iraqi, who has no power or wealth, a man whom Saddam used to sign the execution order of hundreds like him without even knowing the name of one of them, standing boldly and exposing this monster’s horrible crimes. He was not afraid and returned Saddam’s words with stronger ones. I must admit that I saw this man as a hero and I think many Iraqis share a similar view with that of mine, as these people terrorized us for such a long time that even hearing their names used to paralyze us with fear.

"…even hearing their names used to paralyze us with fear.” I think that’s very difficult for most of us non-Iraqis to really internalize, as our comfortable and relatively safe lives have never included such a threat from our own country. Last night, this passage had me lying awake thinking for a while, just trying to get into Ali’s skin a bit. What must it have been like during Hussein’s thugocratic rule? In the end, all I could do is shudder in horror.

Yell it, Ali: “Shut up, Saddam!” Right up until one of your fellow citizens has the honor of ending that evil man’s life, and shuts him up forever…