Comments on: Saddam gets interviewed, but Dan Rather doesn’t get the scoop this time

By: Steve S

Steve S — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

I read that post just the other day - he has an update that says it was a simulation: an actor playing Saddam, to see what he might say.

But I think this shows the - I believe justified - power of the “banality of evil” meme. I wouldn’t be surprised if Saddam truly believed these things.

Interestingly, many in Stalin’s prison camps wrote to him, explaining that there must have been some mistake made. They thought he would rectify the situation. At least Iraq’s people know what truly happened.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

For his crimes Saddam should be turned over to the Kurds !

By: Goesh

Goesh — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

All this time in captivity has probably been devoted to bargaining with him to get some of the money back that he has squirreled away by the billions. I’m sure he has enough money to be able to bargain for his life but I’m not sure how the Iraqi people can be placated without his execution.

By: PatCA

PatCA — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

I think the banality refers to the fact that such evil is not extraordinary but latent in lots of people. I thought of her remark when I recently saw Downfall, a movie portraying Hitler as the consummate banality.

I also get nightmares whenever I watch something about Saddam or his sons, like Voices of Iraq.

By: PatCA

PatCA — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

By: troutsky

troutsky — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 07:00:00 +0000

The “banality” that Arendt tried to describe had to do with the fact that Eichmann,along with other “evildoers” was described as a great family man, a loving father, husband ,a funny companion etc.. in other words the dislocation of “good and evil”.He could go to “work” and do horrible things and come home to tuck his children in bed.

This from an interview with an imprisoned Tutsi killer: “Killing was less wearisome than farming.In the marshes,we could lag around for hours looking for someone to slaughter without getting penalized.We fell asleep every evening safe from care..”
Or this: “I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes to spread a lively terror” Winston Churchill