A friend was horrified by my cavalier attitude toward Saddam's execution. And another friend told me this morning how depressed he is that our country continues to participate in violence.
I do wish we could have handled Saddam Hussein differently (the whole thing — from the war to the execution — is not what I would have wanted). However, watching HBO's Rome so shortly before the execution gave me a historical perspective that helps me feel more hopeful about humanity than my fellow believers in non-violence.
We don't live in an ideal world (by any stretch of the imagination), but we're learning some lessons. Most of the developed world no longer performs executions, and even this execution was less brutal than it could have been (and less brutal than many people wanted it to be).
I am afraid we're at the beginning of a denominational war in the near east, similar to the Thirty Years War in Europe. But, assuming we don't destroy the planet, I think we'll survive this next war, and humanity will continue to grow away from our violent heritage.
That's why non-violence is so important. Through our everyday choices, we can be part of the energy that will eventually move humanity away from things like the brutal murder of Julius Caesar and toward the "peaceable kingdom" envisioned in Isaiah 11.