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We
Bagged Dad
Okay, it's a corny title. My friend and fellow chaplain with CJTF-HOA here at Camp Lemonier is Commander Jack Lea. Jack sent me an e-mail he'd received from back in the States. Here's what it said: A pastor in Tallahassee was speaking to his congregation last Sunday morning: "Ladies and gentlemen, several months ago our forces were successful in eliminating Uday and Qusay Hussein … Today I am pleased to announce that they have bagged Dad." Did I ever doubt that we would capture or kill Saddam Hussein? No. Never a doubt. Why? I have been privileged to serve in military communities where some of the folks are trained to do nothing but hunt down bad guys. Let me put it like this: they are very good at what they do. Or you can look at it like this: be glad they're on our side! I was discussing some of these things at lunch today. I made the comment that one of the traits of the American people is a sense of justice, and a basic desire to be unprovoked. It was Admiral Yamamoto who spoke these solemn words following the attack on Pearl Harbor, "I fear all I have done is awakened a sleeping giant, and filled him with a terrible resolve." While the rest of Japan was shouting in victory, the admiral understood the seriousness of his country's actions against the United States. Having spent many years in America, he knew us as a people. His premonition was correct. Americans generally have a live-and-let-live approach to life. This is why we have at times in our history reverted to an isolationistic mentality. "Don't interfere with the affairs of other nations," or "Leave us alone to go about our own business." So strong has this been at times that we have not always acted as soon as we should have when world events demanded we step up. We were very slow in allowing ourselves to be drawn into WWI, and shamefully slow reacting to the drama unfolding in the early years of WWII. We'd heard about the atrocities being committed by the likes of Mussolini and Hitler. We simply did not want to believe it. Could anyone be so cruel as to slaughter people in wholesale fashion? Our European friends were begging us to enter the fray. It was not until we were struck at Pearl Harbor that we entered both war fronts, Asia and Europe. Think about this capture of Saddam for a moment. It was some young soldier, probably nineteen or twenty years old, who suspected something wasn't quite right while searching a particular farm. He calls others to help him and they uncover the "spider hole" in which Saddam was hiding. So disciplined and respectful of human life are our military personnel that Saddam not only was not shot on the spot, but from the pictures we've seen he wasn't even roughed up. Why? Because Americans as a whole do not allow their actions to be driven and controlled by emotions. So when you see the face of Saddam plastered all over the media in the weeks and months to come, just remember we are a compassionate people. If we were some other kind of society, Saddam may well have been riddled with bullets, mutilated, his body paraded through the streets of Baghdad, and perhaps unceremoniously dumped into the Tigris River. Do you doubt it? Try this on for size. Tonight we had a guest speaker at our base. This man had been a Marine pilot during the first Gulf War. After he was shot down, he was captured and held for 37 days. During that time he was beaten mercilessly and deprived of even the most rudimentary needs of life. Whether Saddam lives or dies will be determined by those who will sit in judgment over him. At this writing it appears an Iraqi council is in place to handle this very situation and will have the unpleasant task of deciding this man's fate. But until then, during the time he is detained he will be treated in a manner he never even afforded his own people. This, my friends, is one more reason to thank God for America.
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