Cards Drawn: Conquer Emotions and Defend
We often think about Hitler when we talk about evil people in history. But I want to go somewhere else, something more modern. Let me take you back to Iraq December 2006. I was a soldier tasked with caring for several detainees while the Human Intelligence team investigated their role (or lack thereof) in operations against Coalition Forces. As guards we were good at maintaining professionalism and care for our detainees as allotted by our regulations and safety protocol. Which was in stark contrast to what the Saddam Regime had.
I recall this incident where I had a detainee with me that was carrying one of the Wash Closet (WC) cans after we were done burning them and I needed him to move fast. Given the circumstances, I would have gladly taken the can to the WC myself, but the problem was that it went to the outhouse which was explicitly for people with Typhoid. So for health purposes, only someone with typhoid was allowed to carry it. At the same time he and I were doing this, another guard was escorting actual prisoners of war that were in transit to another location. Neither the detainee nor the prisoner were to encounter each other for the safety of my detainee. The idea being, if the prisoner could figure out who a detainee was, they might find a way to put a hit out on them.
He was being very reluctant and just wanted to stay in the sun. Something I could understand, but this time I didn’t have time to give him an extra two minutes. I had to encourage him to be and I did something that I sort of regret: “Hurry please, the IPs (Iraqi Police) are here, and we don’t want you to see them”.
His eyes got wide with fear, and instead of walking quickly to place the can where it needed to go, he ran shoved it in and ran back to me, hiding along the way and keeping quite. We got back without incident. But the fear that ran in him was deep, and as I discovered through research- it was well warranted. Saddam Hussein used his police forces to do some really unspeakable things. Where Americans are terrified of the AR-15 right now, the people of Iraq were afraid of a handgun due to public murders execution style. The leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was no different from the people who were subordinate to him. He encouraged atrocities against the Shia and Kurdish populations.
In 2006, Saddam Hussein was hanged for his crimes against the Iraqi people. The incident I spoke of was just a few days before his hanging, so by this time Saddam’s physical hold on the people had been taken away from him for 3 years, but his emotional hold was still very alive.
We’ve seen 2006, now go back three years before this: December 13, 2003- Operation Red Dawn. Imagine that you are a member of the team that is about to search a random hole in Tikrit, Iraq that intel says it’s very likely Hussein is in, and you know the full extent of his crimes. As you go in, you come face to face with Saddam Hussein.
Which person would you be? In the moment that you have that opportunity to take out the evil before you, before he could harm another person again, would you be Anakin pleading for his trial? Or Mace Windu ready to take off the head of someone that at least appears unarmed?
I know myself. I had detainees that when I learned what the evidence was against them, I just saw red. And I’m not talking about the people that set up mortars or bombs against coalition forces, or even the ones that started fire-fights with our troops. Those people I could understand, it was the people that were known for sawing off heads that got to me. It’s because of my interaction with them as a professional soldier, that I know I would react the same way as the unit that went into the hole would. I would have captured him and let the authorities deal with him. Which also means I would have needed to defend him against any attackers while he was in my care. Conquering my emotions and giving the PEOPLE of Iraq what they deserved- their opportunity at exacting justice rather than my stealing it from them. Conquering my emotions so that Saddam would have an opportunity to admit he wronged people (even if in reality he did not, and died mocking the Shia even in his final words).
As Jedi, we defend to the best of our ability. We defend even when it is emotionally difficult to defend. Not for ourselves, but for the sanctity of human civilization.