Saddam - Final Fight
Opinion piece over at El Reg re: Saddam's televised execution on YouTube.
I am unlikely to watch it. Death is one thing. Execution is another. And they actually interrupted his final prayer?
I have been a little slow getting on the pro-death penalty bandwagon (speaking generally), even though I have stated, and will continue to do so, that there are some people that should just better be dead. Believing what I believe about God and souls and eternity makes this thing uncomfortable for me.
Execution should never be celebrated, popular, and spectacle, though ever it has been.
Execution is far more important, should be far more carefully handled than just about anything. The person or group that makes the decision that execution is the appropriate recourse must do so with solemnity and prayer (or meditation if you've nothing to pray to); the person or group who will be throwing the switch should do so with fasting and prayer and solemnity. We are connected in ways that you and I can not comprehend, and the taking of a life, even the decision to do so, resonates through that connection powerfully.
This was handled wrongly. I want to hate those who participated in the spectacle that this has become, but this is giving into the same emotion that drives their behavior. For just this once, I will restrain my rage.
I'm no longer convinced that we have a responsibility in that part of the world. Is this who we are handing things over to? Is this who our young wo/men are dying for? Will anything that we do be enough to help them? Didn't someone once say that you can tell a lot about a society by how they handle their criminals?
And yet, would we be any different? History suggests that we would behave similarly, but never has a society such as ours existed. Nevertheless.
"Saddam's killers have achieved the impossible: they have made us feel sympathy for him, for his grace under pressure." -- The Guardian
I will not watch it.
Rest in peace, old man. For all that you've done, you've paid the ultimate mortal price. I fear there is worse to come for those you've left behind.
I am unlikely to watch it. Death is one thing. Execution is another. And they actually interrupted his final prayer?
I have been a little slow getting on the pro-death penalty bandwagon (speaking generally), even though I have stated, and will continue to do so, that there are some people that should just better be dead. Believing what I believe about God and souls and eternity makes this thing uncomfortable for me.
Execution should never be celebrated, popular, and spectacle, though ever it has been.
Execution is far more important, should be far more carefully handled than just about anything. The person or group that makes the decision that execution is the appropriate recourse must do so with solemnity and prayer (or meditation if you've nothing to pray to); the person or group who will be throwing the switch should do so with fasting and prayer and solemnity. We are connected in ways that you and I can not comprehend, and the taking of a life, even the decision to do so, resonates through that connection powerfully.
This was handled wrongly. I want to hate those who participated in the spectacle that this has become, but this is giving into the same emotion that drives their behavior. For just this once, I will restrain my rage.
I'm no longer convinced that we have a responsibility in that part of the world. Is this who we are handing things over to? Is this who our young wo/men are dying for? Will anything that we do be enough to help them? Didn't someone once say that you can tell a lot about a society by how they handle their criminals?
And yet, would we be any different? History suggests that we would behave similarly, but never has a society such as ours existed. Nevertheless.
"Saddam's killers have achieved the impossible: they have made us feel sympathy for him, for his grace under pressure." -- The Guardian
I will not watch it.
Rest in peace, old man. For all that you've done, you've paid the ultimate mortal price. I fear there is worse to come for those you've left behind.