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Death to Saddam
It looks like Saddam will be executed by Sunday and perhaps even today, NBC reports. Like my friend Grace, who posted on this a couple of days ago over at The Reaction, I am against the death penalty. Indeed, my opposition to it is absolute, and this case — the case of a genocidal tyrant — is no exception. I have no compassion for Saddam, but a suitable and just punishment for his many crimes against humanity would be for him to spend the rest of his life in prison. Another death — another killing — is not the answer.
9 Responses to “Death to Saddam”
Punishment, in a legal sense, serves two different groups, the guilty, and the aggrieved.
In Saddam’s case, I’d agree that he’d suffer more to keep him alive. However, the aggrieved deserve to know that his existence has been blanked out, and that he’ll never return.
His existence can be blanked out, and his exile insured without his death. His continued life essentially in a cage is the most fitting and powerful punishment against this tyrant and war criminal. His death serves no purpose but revenge, and a catalyst for more killing of our men and women in uniform (as well as 1000′s more innocent Iraqi’s.
In this case we need a punishment to transcend the legal, and set an example through its morality and well as its justness. Life in prison at hard labor would be better choice.
Well I am for the death penalty, and Saddam enters with ease into the category of “deserves to die”. But putting that aside I think that Saddam dead is less dangerous than Saddam alive. Sure, he could achieve some “martyr” status if he is killed, but I think it would hardly make Sunnis angrier than they already are. If he were to be kept alive he would be dangerous. He would have to be handed over to the Iraqi government and from an Iraqi prison he could begin to influence the country. Many people are still loyal to him; he could again become a force to be reckoned with and a point of inspiration for insurgents.
Fry the bastard. Lynx is absolutely right. Justic eneeds to be served, and all justice is vengeance of a sort. Stop the mamby pamby and do what’s right. He deserves a public execution like w Mussolini.
Lynx and bellisaurius have nailed my opinion on this. He should hang and not just as proper justice for a terrible human being, but for the people he harmed and killed.
The problem with life imprisonment is that it leaves the Ba’athist insurgents with the hope, however faint, however unrealistic, that Uncle Saddam can be freed and returned to power. If Uncle Saddam is dead, there’s no such hope; Qsay and Uday are already gone, so there is no obvious successor to carry on the dynasty. Perhaps, then, instead of a “catalyst” for violence, his execution takes the remaining air out of the Ba’ath insurgency. There are a number of historical examples of a similar phenomenon of a totalitarian movement going defunct after the death of a charismatic leader: Italian Fascism did not outlive Mussolini; National Socialism did not outlive Hitler; Romanian communism did not outlive Caucescu.
Great point, Baby!
the insurgency going defunct? dream on
It’s interesting that the two threads have two different directions on the execution.
personally, I don;t see how execution is uncivilized. It’s a very controlled, solemn action of a citizenry. The alternative is the uncivilized choice: Blood Feuds.