Are we really doing this?
Sunday, November 5. 2006
It is about midnight on a Sunday night, and I'm sitting in my room watching the sentencing of Saddam thinking, "what the f**k?" Can we really put him to death? By hanging?
I'm not entirely opposed to the death penalty (though not totally for it, either). I could be convinced that a member of society who obviously, brutally kills several people and is going to rot in prision forever could be better served. On the otherhand, it is still wrong to kill a person.
But Saddam is different. He wasn't a normal member of society. He was the leader of a sovereign nation, capable of making laws. How can any outside organization impose any ruling on him? Especially one that claims to be under the UN flag (a underlying theme of which is independent sovereignty of nations)? While I think the UN might have had the moral obligation to remove him from power... does anyone (especially the government replacing him) have the jurisdiction to kill him? And vengence doesn't seem like a good enough reason to put a man to death. His trial WAS a sham. I mean seriously... the rules were custom-built for this ONE trial. At least put him on trial in Nuremberg like Slobodan Miloševi?.
So what to do with him? I'm not sure. It just doesn't seem like we can really punish him. Not that he should play golf for the rest of his life. But couldn't we put him in Nebraska or something? Letting him live out his natural life there seems punishment enough (I'm assuming that the Muslim population in Nebraska is .. um... sparse). Just house arrest him like Martha Stewart so he can never leave.
I dunno. Am I the only one bothered by this?
I'm not entirely opposed to the death penalty (though not totally for it, either). I could be convinced that a member of society who obviously, brutally kills several people and is going to rot in prision forever could be better served. On the otherhand, it is still wrong to kill a person.
But Saddam is different. He wasn't a normal member of society. He was the leader of a sovereign nation, capable of making laws. How can any outside organization impose any ruling on him? Especially one that claims to be under the UN flag (a underlying theme of which is independent sovereignty of nations)? While I think the UN might have had the moral obligation to remove him from power... does anyone (especially the government replacing him) have the jurisdiction to kill him? And vengence doesn't seem like a good enough reason to put a man to death. His trial WAS a sham. I mean seriously... the rules were custom-built for this ONE trial. At least put him on trial in Nuremberg like Slobodan Miloševi?.
So what to do with him? I'm not sure. It just doesn't seem like we can really punish him. Not that he should play golf for the rest of his life. But couldn't we put him in Nebraska or something? Letting him live out his natural life there seems punishment enough (I'm assuming that the Muslim population in Nebraska is .. um... sparse). Just house arrest him like Martha Stewart so he can never leave.
I dunno. Am I the only one bothered by this?
