g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets
Brian Tiemann
Silicon Valley-based purveyor of a confusing mixture of Apple punditry and political bile.

btman at grotto11 dot com

On My Blog Menu:

InstaPundit
USS Clueless
James Lileks
Little Green Footballs
As the Apple Turns
Entropicana
Cold Fury
Capitalist Lion
Red Letter Day
Eric S. Raymond
Tal G in Jerusalem
Secular Islam
Aziz Poonawalla
Corsair the Rational Pirate
.clue

« ? Blogging Brians # »





Book Plug:

Buy it and I get
money. I think.
BSD Mall




12/15/2003 - 12/17/2003
 12/8/2003 - 12/14/2003
 12/1/2003 -  12/7/2003
11/24/2003 - 11/30/2003
11/17/2003 - 11/23/2003
11/10/2003 - 11/16/2003
 11/3/2003 -  11/9/2003
10/27/2003 -  11/2/2003
10/20/2003 - 10/26/2003
10/13/2003 - 10/19/2003
 10/6/2003 - 10/12/2003
 9/29/2003 -  10/5/2003
 9/22/2003 -  9/28/2003
 9/15/2003 -  9/21/2003
  9/8/2003 -  9/14/2003
  9/1/2003 -   9/7/2003
 8/25/2003 -  8/31/2003
 8/18/2003 -  8/24/2003
 8/11/2003 -  8/17/2003
  8/4/2003 -  8/10/2003
 7/28/2003 -   8/3/2003
 7/21/2003 -  7/27/2003
 7/14/2003 -  7/20/2003
  7/7/2003 -  7/13/2003
 6/30/2003 -   7/6/2003
 6/23/2003 -  6/29/2003
 6/16/2003 -  6/22/2003
  6/9/2003 -  6/15/2003
  6/2/2003 -   6/8/2003
 5/26/2003 -   6/1/2003
 5/19/2003 -  5/25/2003
 5/12/2003 -  5/18/2003
  5/5/2003 -  5/11/2003
 4/28/2003 -   5/4/2003
 4/21/2003 -  4/27/2003
 4/14/2003 -  4/20/2003
  4/7/2003 -  4/13/2003
 3/31/2003 -   4/6/2003
 3/24/2003 -  3/30/2003
 3/17/2003 -  3/23/2003
 3/10/2003 -  3/16/2003
  3/3/2003 -   3/9/2003
 2/24/2003 -   3/2/2003
 2/17/2003 -  2/23/2003
 2/10/2003 -  2/16/2003
  2/3/2003 -   2/9/2003
 1/27/2003 -   2/2/2003
 1/20/2003 -  1/26/2003
 1/13/2003 -  1/19/2003
  1/6/2003 -  1/12/2003
12/30/2002 -   1/5/2003
12/23/2002 - 12/29/2002
12/16/2002 - 12/22/2002
 12/9/2002 - 12/15/2002
 12/2/2002 -  12/8/2002
11/25/2002 -  12/1/2002
11/18/2002 - 11/24/2002
11/11/2002 - 11/17/2002
 11/4/2002 - 11/10/2002
10/28/2002 -  11/3/2002
10/21/2002 - 10/27/2002
10/14/2002 - 10/20/2002
 10/7/2002 - 10/13/2002
 9/30/2002 -  10/6/2002
 9/23/2002 -  9/29/2002
 9/16/2002 -  9/22/2002
  9/9/2002 -  9/15/2002
  9/2/2002 -   9/8/2002
 8/26/2002 -   9/1/2002
 8/19/2002 -  8/25/2002
 8/12/2002 -  8/18/2002
  8/5/2002 -  8/11/2002
 7/29/2002 -   8/4/2002
 7/22/2002 -  7/28/2002
 7/15/2002 -  7/21/2002
  7/8/2002 -  7/14/2002
  7/1/2002 -   7/7/2002
 6/24/2002 -  6/30/2002
 6/17/2002 -  6/23/2002
 6/10/2002 -  6/16/2002
  6/3/2002 -   6/9/2002
 5/27/2002 -   6/2/2002
 5/20/2002 -  5/26/2002
 5/13/2002 -  5/19/2002
  5/6/2002 -  5/12/2002
 4/29/2002 -   5/5/2002
 4/22/2002 -  4/28/2002
 4/15/2002 -  4/21/2002
  4/8/2002 -  4/14/2002
  4/1/2002 -   4/7/2002
 3/25/2002 -  3/31/2002
 3/18/2002 -  3/24/2002
 3/11/2002 -  3/17/2002
  3/4/2002 -  3/10/2002
 2/25/2002 -   3/3/2002
 2/18/2002 -  2/24/2002
 2/11/2002 -  2/17/2002
  2/4/2002 -  2/10/2002
 1/28/2002 -   2/3/2002
 1/21/2002 -  1/27/2002
 1/14/2002 -  1/20/2002
  1/7/2002 -  1/13/2002
12/31/2001 -   1/6/2002
12/24/2001 - 12/30/2001
12/17/2001 - 12/23/2001
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
22:08 - "The very last stroke of the War"

(top) link
Apparently there are quite a lot of Iraqis, Zeyad included, who are experiencing an odd sort of let-down feeling following the capture of Saddam. In most cases it's not because they liked Saddam at all, or because they equated Saddam with their national pride; it's because Saddam looked so pathetic. "That was the tyrant we were so afraid of all these years?"

In the words of LGF commenter Malice:

Even those who hated Saddam feel saddened by his surrender. It makes sense when you think about it. He kept the whole country in a state of terrible fear for 30 years, but yet he was afraid to fight and die at the end. Wouldn't you also feel betrayed and sickened at your own cowardice for not standing up to him? Wouldn't you feel that such a weak man could have obviously been overthrown at any time, and that your people may have suffered for the last 30 years for nothing?

I suppose it's kind of like that feeling that you get in the NCAA tournament - when the team that beats your team gets crushed in the next round. You hated them for knocking your boys out, but then you cheered for them to legitimize your own team's failure. When they get spanked, you realize that your team sucked all along.

Yeah. And to anguish another metaphor...

This wasn't the Valar driving Morgoth to his uttermost refuge in Angband, hewing his legs from under him as he pleaded for mercy, and dragging him out in chains, as some have painted it. Sure, the parallels are all there in context-- but those video images make plain that whereas even a chained-up Morgoth needed to be kept at bay by a vengeful and snickering Tulkas poking him in the back of the head every couple of steps, this Saddam clearly didn't. Docile as a cow.

What it reminds me of, in the Tolkien context, is the end of the Scouring of the Shire: Wormtongue slitting a bedraggled Saruman's throat from behind, while the hobbits watched aghast. Though they were brandishing shovels and hoes and ready for a fight, this kind of anticlimax would have made them all wonder-- how come we didn't stand up to Sharkey sooner? Is this all there was to him?

I haven't seen the Return of the King movie yet, but I know that the Scouring of the Shire was cut from it-- reportedly because Jackson didn't like it. To him it felt wrong, somehow-- too unbalanced, too anticlimactic, too depressingly banal an end for such an epic story. (I kinda see that point. Kinda.) And perhaps that's what's going on here; the thirty-year-old tale of horror that has been Iraq deserves a more crashing-chords-and-fanfares kind of ending, a blow-up-the-load-bearing-boss ending where the good guys have to race to safety before the last Tikriti palace caves in on them. Not this-- a Star Trek ending, where a few red-shirts dig the blinking and disoriented fugitive out of a cave, babbling incoherently, delusional, unlikely even to provide any kind of satisfaction to his victims who can't even get him to understand that he's lost.

It's as though we'd caught Hitler, and he'd turned out to a quiet little man who enjoyed chess and painting Alpine scenes and who personally wouldn't hurt a fly, and when confronted with his crimes merely smiled beatifically and asked what the weather was like. Prison or execution-- neither end would have felt right. Like with the Japanese leaders who never truly accepted defeat, even in the Nuremberg trials, the only thing was to swallow the bitter pill of knowledge that this was the best we were going to get.

I guess that's the nature of dealing with power-mad dictators. You can't deal with them as you would normal human beings-- they're too far gone. You'll never get satisfaction, no matter how well things go.


Back to Top


© Brian Tiemann