My two cents (you may be asking for change)

My 4th year thesis in undergrad was about the transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa and the truth commissions. How does a society which has seen atrocities (from both sides), move on to coexist peacefully and not continue a cycle of violence against each other. The truth commissions were essentially a large public confessional court wherein people could attend, tell the commission about how they or their loved ones had been wronged, how apartheid effected every facet of their lives, but also how they had done wrong.* Provided the answers were truthful and forthright, they were given amnesty against criminal conviction. The idea was reconciliation between both sides which could form the basis of a cohesive society.

I picked the topic not only because South Africa fascintes me, but because I heard a statistic that gave me pause.**

In Northern Ireland they*** polled children and their parents about their feelings about the other side of the conflict. Oddly enough, the children were the ones who were more outraged and upset at the other side than their parents. Each successive generation was more prone to violence outrage and aggresion agains the other. A succession of younger generaitons could quickly leave a country in shambles without something intervening to stop the cycle of violence.

So, evaulating the truth commissions as a means of "restorative justice" was what I wanted to write about,**** to see if it could lessen or prevent the next generations from beng more angry than the last, breaking the cycle of violence.

With that in mind, I've been mulling over posting about the death of Mr. al-Zarqawi. I'll be the first to say that he may have, indeed, been a very, very bad man. I don't like very, very bad men. I have no interest in any mountains of evidence proving he indeed was a very, very bad man, I'll keep my commentary on the topic to one thing.

I am empathetic and I see the whole world through such a lens. If I were to attend the funeral of a complete stranger it's guaranteed that I'd be in tears before the end of the service. It's just the way I am (and I'm still learning not to make apologies for it).

The pictures plastered all over the Internet and papers and television of al-Zarqawi's death are, in my estimation, pretty gross. They show a bloated face, badly scratched, burnt and swollen from the bombings which ended his life. It's not that I'm not convinced he deserves our sympathies but it does seem wrong (and, contrary to the Geneva Conventions) to plaster his deceased face across the papers. It's the old golden rule, that you should do unto others as you would have done to you. Even if I were a very, very bad man I'm not sure it would be fair to my family to see my face plastered everywhere upon my death.****

Even more troublesome to me is that if our goal is to decrease terrorism (and presumably it is), brandishing his picture is probably not the way to do it.

I don't know a whole lot about Islam and death, but I do know there are some pretty fundamental tenets regarding rituals at death. Fundamental to Muslim beliefs is that the body is sacred, and accordingly postmortem examinations are verboten. There's no question that the cause of death in this situation probably had to be determined as being from blast waves from the bomb, causing "tearing, bruising of the lungs and bleeding," and not a beating (though I'm not sure one realy is any worse than the other; the result is the same).

It's too bad, though, that such a fundamental tenet of this and other fundamental tenets of the Muslim faith were dispensed with.

To me a political ball has been dropped here, and making some slight (and frankly insignificant) changes in how such deaths are handled by those who conducted the bombings could make a significant impact on this and future generations.

It's too bad there wasn't a committee of devout Muslims to whom his body could be turned over to ensure that he receives a proper burial. I'm not saying it should be done for Mr. al-Zarqawi because that's what he'd want, but because the way the West handles his death will effect subsequent generations. The way his death has been handled as it is now probably hasn't won any hearts or minds. In fact, I'd argue that it's had the opposite effect.

I realize that a change in how bodies are handled post mortem won't turn a cold fundamentalist heart into one that dons "USA is a-ok!" t-shirts, but it may cause him or her to lose some arguments about the cruelty of the West with his or her brothers and sisters. It really is the major battle right now, one the West desperately needs to win and cognizant of. Winning the respect of people not yet completely convinced the West is what al-Zarqawi says it is will be key to the West in the years to come.

In this era of global politics the focus should be on preventing terrorists, and the way Mr. al-Zarqawi's death has been handled, plastered all over the media and contrary to the religious tenets of that part of the globe will not win any riends. I have no doubt that actions like this, however incivendal, will be adding to the cycle of violence, not detracting from it. Every situation will be impacted by how things are handled, and I have no doubt the impact here will not, in the long run, be for the better.

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*watch "a long night's journey into day" which is a pretty good lesson not only about life in South Africa during apartheid, but also about the truth commission itself.

**well, that and my first thesis was to be about the murder of aboriginal protester Dudley George by Kenneth Deane and the political involvement from the office of our former Premier, BUT the prof I was going to write that thesis for suggested I should try sleeping with him so I quickly switched profs and topics and told the department head. Thanks creepy prof!

***I don't recall who, but just go with me, what's more important is the idea behind it.

****I think this is also why I find taxidermy revolting. We get it. You won, the deer/fish/buffalo/bear/etc. lost. Move on, and for heaven's sake don't mistake such an item for "decor."