I couldn't do it. I clicked on the raw video button on the Comcast news page and watched a minute or so of the run-up to the execution, with the black-masked executioner showing Saddam the black scarf, tying it around his neck (what, to keep his skin from being scratched?), and then, presumably, putting the noose around his neck. I don't know, because I turned it off. I couldn't stand to watch any more.
In my work, I have seen a lot of dead bodies, some of them violently killed. I have been with people as they took their last breaths. I did not want to see any more of this death. I feel horror and pain about the evil things Saddam Hussein did but I do hear a still small voice in my ear, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay".
Lifelong prison sentences, yes. Punishment, for sure. But I do not have the right to take even Saddam Hussein's life.
3 comments:
I'm not a huge fan of the death penalty myself, especially as it's applied today. But I honestly don't see what else we could have done with Saddam, especially since we're trying to hand over authority to the Iraqis. Should we seize it back by countermanding the sentence?
Yes, I know that's oversimplified. But a life sentence would have to be under Iraqi auspices, as we have no legal standing to imprison him. Confining him in Iraq would have one of two outcomes; either he would eventually be released with a change of government (or escape with the help of a shut-eyed guard) or he would live out his life at the mercy of the sort of people who stone women for being raped and conduct routine interrogations with electric drills. Either way, his death was just about the only viable outcome for all concerned.
It was a certainty that his execution was going to take place, but it has not improved the situation at all, in fact it has probably made it worse.
My take on the death penalty, no matter who is executed, is that it only engenders more anger, more revenge, more death. It does not offer closure; it only opens more wounds.
What really upsets me is the glee with which many people greeted the news of his death. Even if one views his execution as necessary, it's a real hardening of heart to rejoice at the destruction of someone God loves.
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