Entry 422, on 2006-11-07 at 15:47:51 (Rating 3, News)
As a follow up to my blog entry of yesterday, where I questioned the morality and wisdom of executing Saddam Hussein, I spent a bit of time sampling opinions on major news sites such as the BBC news site. The majority of contributors seem to think that carrying out the death sentence would be a bad idea. A minority think its justified because most of the world's problems are caused by the west being too soft (I don't think this is true).
Of those who disagree with the idea, the reasons seem to be divided along the sort of lines I discussed yesterday. Some think the death penalty is never justified and disagree with it on principle (which I agree with). Others think that even if it is justified morally or legally, it is better from a practical point of view to not use it because this will remove a major source of conflict (I also agree with this). Another group sees the whole trial process as a farce controlled by the Americans and that the court has no right to operate this way (yes, I agree with this too).
Whatever happens, most of the damage has already been done through the total mismanagement of the whole issue by the Bush-lead coalition. But most experts seem to agree that turning Saddam Hussein into a martyr will make things even worse. The Americans have supported him in the past, now its more useful for them to kill him. What sort of justice is this?
Maybe the best comment about the subject I found on the web was this question: "What difference did all the executions of tyrants by other tyrants in history made [sic] for the general direction of humanity?" Another was the rather cryptic: "Good luck to the people of Iraq." They'll need it.
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