Hopeless granola

It's official; I've become one of those people I used to sneer at in college.

Truth be told, I've been this way for a while; it's just more apparent today. The news today is all about how al-Zarqawi, the current leader of al-Quada in Iraq, was blown up in a US Air Force raid overnight. Journalists and world leaders alike are hailing this as good news, a step in the right direction. We murdered a murderer, saving countless lives and giving us a window, however small, of upper hand in the war on terror. Yay, us.

The problem with reading books like Starhawk's Fifth Sacred Thing, is you get tricked into thinking that the world could be like that, a peaceful existence where everything is decided by true community involvement, where guns are unnecessary, a non-factor. Not in this lifetime.

I used to believe in the death penalty. I used to see actions such as al-Zarqawi's murder as a step in the right direction. Not anymore. I have much more respect for the forces that brought Saddam Hussein in alive. The level of restraint that was called for, to resist the urge to put a bullet in the head of the butcher of Baghdad, so that he could stand trial and answer for his crimes. Makes me wonder if al-Zarqawi was a cleaner criminal, if they knew they didn't have the evidence necessary to bring him to court or the Hague, so they figured this was the next best option. No, I doubt that much thought went into it. They saw an opportunity and took it.

I just don't believe in the murder of another human being anymore, any human being, even one who's slaughtered untold numbers of other humans. When we kill, we decrease our own humanity; we lose something vital of ourselves with every life we take. When I heard the news and other world leaders calling al-Zarqawi's death "good news," I was mortified. How twisted that a death can be considered good news...

Ah, probably just hit me so strongly because I didn't get enough sleep...woke up tired this morning, felt like I should be wearing a sign around my neck that says "I'm out of bed and dressed. What more do you want?" It'll be nice to hang with my bitches tonight.

(graphic courtesy of http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Exhibits/Track16/make_love.html)