Hang-time Michael Jordan does't envy

It does my heart good to be able to continue the Dead Despot of the Week honors for another week. This week’s honoree is really a no-brainer: Saddam.

It would be easy to post a litany of his crimes and horrors, but I think that there is an important other side to the death of this tyrant that needs discussion. That other side is our complicity in the crimes of despots, especially during the Cold War.

Jesse Jackson had a great quote to that effect: "It will not increase our moral authority in the world. ... Saddam's heinous crimes against humanity can never be diminished, but he was our ally while he was doing it. ... Saddam as a war trophy only deepens the catastrophe to which we are indelibly linked."

During the Cold War we backed an awful lot of despots. Our national strategy was that the most important conflict in the world was ours against the Soviets. As a result, we did not care much who we supported as long as they were going to counter the Ruskies in our geopolitical chess game. This approach to foreign policy left us entirely tone deaf to what was actually happening in the Arab world.

Saddam was ok as long as he was fighting the Iranians for us. He used chemical weapons against the Iranians during that war with our complicity. We provided him with the satellite images necessary to make best use of his weapons. When he turned them against his own people in the north we were peeved, but we could forgive him. His crimes against his own people only became a problem when he would not play our.

The case of Saddam illustrates the broader problem the U.S. is going to have as long as our foreign policy is completely self-centered. We will continue to back the enemy of our enemy, no matter what kind of monster that is. In the end, this can cause terrible long term problems, just look at Iraq.

As I reflect on the execution of Saddam, I keep thinking about the famous clip from the 70’s of Donald “Duck and cover” Rumsfeld shaking his hand. Much of the chaos that is happening in Iraq now is the result of Saddam’s brutality for 30 years. We propped him up during that time, and sadly we are now reaping what we helped to sow.

That being said, I don’t shed a tear for him. He richly deserves to be this weeks honoree.