Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2011)
N o vem b er 2, 2011 3^ortlanà (Observer Page 2 1 A Murderous Tyrant’s Grim End An ending that justified intervention place in a sewer pipe, spread-eagled on the hood of a truck and pummeled by an angry mob of his victims while beg ging for mercy. As far as we know, he was then executed w-ithout ceremony. But his final humiliation wasn't yet by D onald K aul complete. His corpse was taken from Like any good liberal I place to place so that the people he'd thought that Muammar oppressed for more than 42 years Gaddafi, after being cap could see, at long last, that their nem tured by rebel forces, esis was truly dead. There were sto should have been read his Miranda rights ries of Libyans punching the body as and taken directly to jail to await trial by they filed past, even bouncing his head a jury of his peers. After being indicted, up and down where he lay. of course. That is Shakespearean in its dramatic As a human being, however, I didn't irony. recoil from the images of his terrible It reminded me of a picture I saw death. There's something deeply, and more than 65 years ago. The vividness I almost atavistically satisfying, in seeing a carry with me even today. murderous tyrant meet the end he de It was a grainy newspaper photo of serves. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, along I recall pictures of his fellow miscre with his mistress and several henchmen, ants Saddam Hussein and Hosni Mubarak hanging upside down, their arms reach in court looking meek and frail. You ing toward the ground at a gas station almost felt sorry for them. near Milan. As Italy fell, they had been There was none of that with Gaddafi. captured by partisans and thus dis In a scene almost too Hollywood to be patched. It was at once horrible and true, he was dragged from his hiding fascinating. Although it goes against the grain of my enlightened liberalism, I can’t rid myself of the notion that there are cer tain crimes — mainly war crimes — that are so heinous, so incomprehensibly cruel and irredeemably evil, that justice isn't enough. Vengeance is demanded. I was a skeptic about our intervention in Libya at the beginning, simply on the basis of our sorry track record in the Middle East. Involvement in yet another endless war wasn't called for. I changed my mind when it became apparent that we weren't putting troops at risk. I think this ending justifies Presi dent Barack Obama's decision. Not everyone feels that w ay. Som e R epublicans (w ho w o uldn't cred it O bam a if he sin g le-h an d ed ly found a cure for can cer) still say that the w ar didn't involve our national in te r est, and we should have stay ed out o f it, and the h u m an itarian crisis be dam ned. Gaddafi was a financier of terrorism throughout the world. He engineered the killing of U.S. citizens in the Lockerbie bombing as well as other terrorist at- tacks. He offered handsome cash awards to the families of suicide bombers all over the world. Getting rid of him wasn't in our national interest? Gimme a break. There's a legitim ate question as to w hether G addafi's death will lead to a more dem ocratic Libya, one that is a force for peace in the region. I tend to be of the persuasion that nothing that happens in the Middle East makes things better. But Gaddafi’s death may be an exception. Besides being a tyrant, Gaddafi was also a benevolent dictator, one who pro vided health care, education, and other benefits to his people. They are well placed to begin to govern themselves. It's a shot. When you get a chance to have one less Gaddafi in the world, you should take it. If I were President Obama, I'd have a picture of Q addafi’s last moments blown up to poster size and sent to B ashar al-A ssad o f S yria and Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen. As a friendly rem inder. OtherWords columnist Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Mich. A Big Debt of Gratitude to Our Troops Ending the quagmire of war in Iraq M arc H. M orial Last month, President Obama announced that the remaining 39,000 U.S. service men and women in Iraq will be back on U.S. soil by the end of the year. This essentially brings to a close a nearly decade long war that the President opposed from the start and vowed to end. This is welcome news for our troops and their families who have sacrificed so much in what has been increasingly viewed as an ill-advised and costly military mistake. The nation owes a big debt of gratitude to the more* than one million Americans who have been deployed to Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003. This includes more than 4,480 who died on the battlefield and more than 32,000 who were wounded. Now that the war is ending, we must do everything in our power to ensure that the support our returning vets need to by • JJortlanb (Dbsvrtier rebuild their lives, and the jobs they need to support their families, are waiting for them when they come home. In addition to the human toll, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have also been a drain on the U.S. economy. At a cost of more than $800 billion, including billions lost, unaccounted for or stolen, the Iraq War has been a major contributor to the nation ’ s ballooning debt and deficit. It has also diverted funding that could have been used to create jobs and repair America’s crum bling infrastructure. As the President said, "Over the past decade, we spent a trillion dollars on war, bor rowed heavily from overseas, and invested too little in the greatest source of our national strength - our own people. Now, the nation we need to build is our own." ’* We could not agree more. In addition to withdraw ing our troops, we should also accelerate Iraq’s eco nomic independence. Iraq is an oil-rich nation that has traditionally stifled the growth of small businesses and a vibrant middle class due to a culture of rampant corruption and bueaurecratic red-tape. It is clear that if Iraq wants to move forward, it must change that Established 1970 USPS 959-680 4 7 4 7 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 culture from within, and not on the backs of the American taxpayer. The money we have wasted in the war and in rebuilding Iraq’s infrastructure could be better spent here in America, rebuilding schools, roads, bridges, community centers, libraries and equipping our young people and returning veterans with the skills they need to enter the world of work. It is unconscionable that any man or woman who goes abroad to fight our wars has to come home and fight for a job. But sadly that is the case. While overall unemployment remains unacceptably high at 9.1 per cent, post-9/11 veterans suffer from a jobless rate of nearly 13 percent. That is why the President’s Ameri can Jobs Act includes a $5,600 tax credit for busi nesses that hire veterans who have been unemployed for six months or longer. The President deserves our thanks for ensuring that our troops will be home for the holidays. Now it is up to Congress to honor their service and every American who wants to work by passing the American Jobs Act now. Marc H. Morial is president and chief executive officer o f the National Urban League. TheP ortla ndO b serv' r * ‘= ^ " 'e s freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and w ill be returned i f accompanied by a self addressed envelope A ll created des.gn display ads become the sole property o f the newspaper and cannot he used in other publications or personal usage w ithout the w ritten consent o f the general manager, unless the client has purchased the com position o f such ad. O 2008 TH E P O R T LA N D OBSERVER A L L RIGHTS RESERVED. R E P R O D U C TIO N IN W H O L E OR IN PART W IT H O U T P ER M ISSIO N IS P R O H IB ITE D . The Portland O bserver-O re gons Oldest M u lticu ltu ra l P ublica tio n -is a member o f the National Newspaper Association- Founded in 1885, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc. New York. NY, and The West Coast Black Publishers Association Charles H. Washington EDiroR.M ichael L e ig h to n D is t r ib u t io n M an a g e r : M a rk W a s h in g to n C r e a t iv e D ir e c t o r : P a u l N e u fe ld t E d ito r - in -C h ie f , P ublisher : CALL 503-288-0033 Q£WS@pvrll<mdob5erver. com FAX 503-288-0015 Qds@Portlandobserver.com subscription @portlandohserver. com P ostmaster : Send address changes to Portland Observer, P 0 Box 3 1 3 7, Portland, OR9 7 2 0 8
