I felt compassion for the pitiful creature that was being examined on tv.
I am fully for punishing him and that he was and is a monster.
However, simply watching and seeing what he had become made me feel compassion.For a few minutes.
Do you guys get what I’m saying?
Yuppers.
I’m all out of compash. 2003 done used it all up. Call me after the New Year, I might have a new supply in by then.
Thank you, LHoD, but still, one would like to have seen Dubya kick Saddam in the face, saying, “I. Have. Had. Enough. Of. You!” and watch Saddam spiral into a pool of lava.
gobear, I think that suggestion is about as papal bull as any other idea that I’ve heard.
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
Sure, gobear, but how much cooler would it be to see Kofi Annan kick them both into the lava?
Compassionately, of course.
Daniel
Sorry for chiming in late here; I wasn’t surprised to see a Pit thread here, as this is one of the hot topics of the week.
I would like to say that I’m pleased with the proportion of people who are defending the Cardinal’s statement; I’m sorry to say that I didn’t expect this much support.
I think some points should be clarified. While I don’t have the Cardinal’s statement in front of me, I think it’s essential to notice that he does NOT appear to be saying that Sadaam shouldn’t be brought to justice. There’s a fundamental difference between justice and mercy/compassion, and they’re not necessarily mutually exclusive. Consider: if one of your kids is disobedient, you, as a parent, have an obligation to reprimand him. That doesn’t mean you don’t feel compassion for your child; if anything, your love of your child is what inspires you to correct him, so that he won’t repeat the behavior.
Not to make light of the situation, but Sadaam was somebody’s baby once. Hell, given the right circumstances, the proper wealth, and some poor decisionmaking, and any one of us could have been a ruthless dictator. That’s the amazing thing about humanity: we all have the capability to be the best or the worst of us.
One of the cornerstone points of Catholic social teaching is the concept of the dignity of the human person. (“Dignity,” I realize, may have different meanings to different people, so the short of it for this discussion is that people are people, and must be treated as people, not as objects. To illustrate: a homeless man still has dignity, even if he’s forced to beg in the street in rags. We might consider it “undignified” in the conventional sense of the word, but he still has dignity in that he’s a person. It would be wrong to, say, laugh at the man for personal amusement, or kill the guy to reduce the surplus population, because it would treat him as a means to an end rather than as a human individual.) It’s understood that human dignity is inalienable (note that the Declaration of Independence and the UN Charter agree with this): it can’t be bartered, sold, or stolen. People are people, and must be treated as such.
Sadaam was a very bad man, and must be brought to justice. What the Cardinal may be fearing, however, is that in our zeal to do so, it may be turning into a personal quest for revenge…which is understandable in light of his atrocities, but still not acceptable. (On that note, I’m pleased that President Bush is holding himself in reserve: he’s been candid in his opinion that Sadaam should be executed, but he’s also been clear that it’s none of his damn business what the Iraquis choose to do with him.) The Cardinal may have been concerned that, by putting Sadaam on TV and displaying his teeth being checked, we’re coming closer to parading him through the streets as an object to satisfy people’s bloodlusts. I would agree that the statement was premature: the tooth check was necessary and didn’t seem improper to me.
On the other hand, given how many people I hear on talk radio calling for Sadaam not just to be executed, but to also be run through a shredding machine, I do worry that personal cries for vengeance are being confused with justice.
Thank you. Now I have the image of President Bush and Saddam Hussein as Blanche and Jane Hudson stuck in my head . . .
“You couldn’t do these dreadful things to me if I weren’t in this spiderhole.”
“But’cha are, Saddam—ya are in that spierhole!”
Count me in with those that are surprised to see the Cardinal critisised.
I’m an atheist and I feel compassion for Saddam, especially when I saw the pcitures. Doesn’t change the fact that I think he is essantially a monster. So even as an atheist I am a better christian then some, in this regard. If the Cardinal hadn’t said what he did, he probably shouldn’t have been a Cardinal.
It’s possible to feel compassion for a broken old man, and at the same time wonder if he now understands how all his victims felt as the blindfolds were tightened over their faces at the edges of their graves. Sure, I feel sorry for the guy, in a really odd way; I wouldn’t want to see anybody that reduced. And it’s not even sympathy I especially want to feel. But that sympathy is balanced by the knowledge of what he’s done to so many people. Not just all the murder victims, but the families who suffered their loss, and then not even being able to bury them and mourn. Pity for Hussein will pass eventually. I think reading reports that he made jokes about the name of one of his victims is doing the the trick nicely.
To those who would criticise the Cardinal:
What the fuck makes you think you have the right to decide when it is or is not ok for another person to feel compassion? Fuck you! I felt some pity too, so blow me. I’ll feel sorry for whoever the fuck I feel like and I don’t need your fucking permission! Eat my fucking asshole, you self-righteous sociopaths.
Rofl! Now that made my day 
I understand the point of several posters here who felt compassion, i mean there’s no controlling what you feel, yet taking those feelings of pity and compassion into account, and boiling justice down to its’ most base, they contradict one another completely.
In true justice, there is no compassion, and often, the reverse is true. Saddam Hussein is human garbage, deserving of no more regard than a used diaper. We in the "civilised’ world like to think of ourselves as caring, compassionate souls, cultured, and refined, and above such things as returning violent behavior with more violence, but in cases like this one, a languid, violent death, sans trial, should await this monster of a man. Right from the spider hole, through the razor wire sweater, past the honey glaze to the ant hill, if it were up to me.
Which, good for him, I’m not.
damn! preview! It’s not, make that IT’S NOT!
What utter bullshit.
The Cardinal feels compassion because he’s obviously a better human being than Saddam.
People over El SAANo were saying they felt kind of sorry for him, seeing him like that-they didn’t like feeling that way, but couldn’t help it.
It’s called being human. Perhaps it makes us better people that we can pity even someone like him.
I for one think it shows HOPE for humanity. We’re not all scum.
One of the nice things about not being a Christian is that I don’t have to feel compassion for anybody.
The Vatican’s MO:
Sympathy for dictators and child molesting priests
Disdain for victims of genocide/sexual abuse and condom wearers.
Fuck Saddam.
I felt kinda sorry for the guy. One minute you’re on top of the world, palaces galore, minions to do your bidding, enemies being tortured and killed. The next, you’re just a broken down old man being poked and prodded on worldwide TV after living in a fucking hole. It’d be easier if he looked like some kinda monster, but he looks like someone’s grandfather. We’re sick, sad creatures
Holy shit, I kinda agree with the RCC and disagree with the Dopers! Furthermore, I’d think LESS of the RCC if they said “Fry the bastard.” Because Jesus didn’t say “Love everybody that’s really easy to get along with.”
That said, he does deserve whatever he gets from the people he’s wronged. And I think this is the best possible end. He’s not a martyr, not some kind of hero for the radicals to rally around. He’s a broken old man, taken whimpering from a hole in the ground.
All There Is To Know About Adolph Eichmann
EYES:…Medium
HAIR:…Medium
WEIGHT:…Medium
HEIGHT:…Medium
DISTINGUISHING FEATURES:…None
NUMBER OF FINGERS:…Ten
NUMBER OF TOES:…Ten
INTELLIGENCE:…Medium
What did you expect?
Talons?
Oversize incisors?
Green saliva?
Madness?
-Leonard Cohen
from Flowers for Hitler (1964)
Geez, what is this, National Flip The Vatican The Bird Week?
First we have people who are A-OK with the absolutely inappropriate rudeness of Lauryn Hill because it’s the Church. Now we not only rag on a fucking PRIEST for being compassionate, but we use it as an intro to introduce every anti-Catholic bigoted stereotype out there?
Grow up, people.