as expected, saddam was sentenced to death yesterday. what a farce.

The u.s. only “allowed” Iraq to try him because it was the easiest way of killing him without turning him into a martyr. Make no mistake, this is a proxy execution.

I’ve had lots of people question my anti-death penalty stance with hypotheticals: “what about if it was hitler?” “what if it would save innocent people’s lives?” “why doesn’t ending genocide justify even one death?” Many would say that this is a test case for exactly that kind of scenario.

And I can continue to give no other answer but this: death and the justice system cannot co-exist in a civilised society. No one will ever convince me that murder is a rational, thinking crime which can therefore be deterred by the threat of execution. Murderers are rarely logical people. No one will ever convince me that even if we could prove guilt with 100% certainty, that that gives us the right to kill another human. Guilty or not, I don’t ever want the responsibility of participating in death – I can’t live with that on my conscience. It makes me no better than the killer I abhor.

The only thing which will halt the machinery of death in this world – whether through war, genocide, or willful abject neglect – is when we stop trying to use the machine to our own purposes. we may believe that we have the right and ability to control it – but it controls us. we become a part of it. all our “good intentions” or moral arguments for the “marginal cost of death prevention” matter not – it bloodies our hands the same, no matter how just we believe our actions. and in that way, death turns us into something less that what we aspire to be – it does not elevate us, but vitiates our humanity at the most fundamental level. by devaluing a person’s life, we intrinsically cheapen our own.

it is impossible to kill and not become, by definition, a killer.

and i don’t think that’s something any society, justice system, or individual should ever participate in willingly, even gleefully. vengeance is never justified. and that’s all the death penalty ever is – legalised vengeance.

it’s not that saddam hussein deserves better – it’s that *we* do.

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justice, iraq, war, , saddam hussein, death penalty