I don’t understand why so many people are making a big deal about Saddam Hussein being taunted at his execution. Don’t they understand that the ultimate insult is that they executed him, everything else paling in comparison. Why do we still do this in this day and age?
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that he showed no compassion to his victims, and that he was a thoroughly despicable despot, but we as a people gain absolutely nothing by killing criminals. His execution differs no more than the fifty-three people executed in the United States in 2006, or the estimated 1700 to 10,000 executed in China. Oh, but most of them weren’t taunted.
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4 responses
Right on, Clare.
Well, Saddam won’t be ordering any more people to be raped and fed into plastic shredders anymore now, will he?
Regarding the taunting thing – if anything, I think it probably made Saddam seem more heroic to his followers when he yelled back at the execution witnesses (or whatever you call them) and then died while saying a prayer.
Thanks Pam.
You’re right rankin’ rob he won’t be ordering any. Unfortunately all sorts of his cronies and followers will be making similar orders to avenge his death. And a new host of “martyrs” will be blowing themselves up, killing scores of innocent civilians, soldiers and police (including Canadians in Afghanistan), inspired by his martyrdom.
Your point is actually the strongest arguement that those in favour of the death penalty have, but it is at its weakest applied to the likes of Saddam, because of my points above.
In terms of punishment it was over rather quickly for him wasn’t it? Far better to let him be punished for the rest of his natural life, living locked away, away from any power, prestige and martyrdom that he may have craved. Would it not have been better for him to go through his days a lonely old man, locked away in Guantanamo Bay a la Rudolf Hess, watering weeds and reflecting on the life he’d never have again.
Capital punishment has very little in the way of strong arguements for it. We know that it isn’t a deterrent, murder rates for police (for example, the “last” capital offence in Canada) are basically unchanged from when there was capital punishment. Most murders aren’t very well thought through and punishment is one of the furthest things from people’s minds when committing them. In the cases they are thought through, those murderers never dream that they will be caught, never mind hung/shot/electricuted/garroted/lethal injected/guillatined or whatever.
So apart from “well they won’t do it again” there is very little arguement for capital punishment, and it certainly isn’t an arguement that works in the case of Saddam.