A murderer of millions was killed a few days ago.
My friend Keith wrote a blog entry linking to a list of 11 reasons not to support the death penalty.
I wrote a response to his post...and I wanted to post it on my blog as well.
So, here it is.
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Keith,
I was deeply satisfied to watch Saddam Hussein face the gallows. He was hung, without ceremony or fanfare, in a building that he used as a base of operations for his genocidal regime. He is a murderer on a mass scale, and he committed unimaginable crimes for which no punishment could possibly atone. He deserved death at the hands of those he oppressed.
And yet, I believe killing Saddam Hussein was a mistake. I think the death penalty is wrong.
Throughout nearly every philosophy and idealogy that I am attracted to, the notion of killing an unarmed person who poses no threat to others is deplorable. Saddam Hussein deserves death, yes...but that justice is not ours to mete out. We should stop him, and if killing him is the only way to do that, fine. But we did it without killing him. We caught him, desheveled and dirty, hiding in a spiderhole. We disarmed him, we cut off his communications with his regime and network, and we put him in jail where he can't hurt anybody. We didn't have to kill him to neutralize him.
Killing Saddam Hussein felt very, very right. But we made a martyr of him...the same way we did to Timothy McVeigh, and to David Koresh. They can't get old and weird looking and publicly nutzo like Charlie Manson is. They die "at the hands of [insert anti-American derogatory term (i.e. - Western Devil, Great Satan, etc.) here]," and it gives them an immortality that growing old and batty wouldn't. Dying by noose in the prime of your megalomaniacal tyranny is romantic and strong; dying of bladder cancer in your late 80's isn't.
I read a bumper sticker a while back that I liked. It said, "Why are we killing people who kill people to show other people that killing people is wrong?"
I wanted Saddam to die, because it makes me feel better. But I think it's the wrong choice.
Peace,
Justin
3 comments:
Your response is excellent. Thanks for posting it.
It reminded me of these lyrics from Derek Webb's "My Enemies Are Men Like Me":
peace by way of war
is like purity by way of fornication
it’s like telling someone murder is wrong
and then showing them by way of execution
I have to admit, it would have been much more humiliating for him to die of prostate or colon cancer. Most likely he would have died of a bad heart. His was black enough already.
Well written article.
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