Humanity?

So here's an interesting topic for the end of the year... Saddam Hussain is no more, killed yesterday by hanging for his crimes against humanity. But here's the question - was doing so right or wrong? If you know where to look, you can find a video of the hanging - I'm not going to link it as it's a guy being killed - but after watching it, I couldn't help but wonder if the right thing was done.

For starters, he terrorised the Iraqi people for a good couple of decades (I'm not sure how long, but you get my drift), and committed innumerable acts of awfulness on his own people, captured people, invaded Kuwait - general badness. But his punishment, while not nice, lasted a couple of seconds? Is that justice? Would he not have been better rotting in a prison somewhere - probably unrepentant to his last breath (as he was anyway) but locked up for the last of his years?

England no longer has a death penalty - it used to, but it was scrapped (and again, I don't know the details, though I think it might have been down to executing the wrong person), and some parts of America do, though it seems that people sit on death row for many many years before actually being executed. But is the death penalty right? Is it moral?

What I can't decide though, is does a few seconds of pain and fear make up for a lifetime or torture and torment? While searching for the image for this post, I found a fairly interesting quote that seems appropriate:

"Why kill people who kill people to show that killing people is wrong?"
I think I will leave it at that, as my last serious post for 2006...

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2 Responses to “Humanity?”

debbie said...

Hi Dan, not sure if I will see the vid you mentioned, Personally I am not sure if hanging is right for such a person, causing so much pain to others and suffering, I know he was hanged but he hardly suffered like he caused other people to.. But what I don't know should have happened,, As for Iraq is it really any better now with all the fighting thats going on..

may be may be not can't answer that as I dont live there either

Anonymous said...

I do know one thing.... he is burning in the fires of hell for eternity w/ his sons .... don't think there will be 72 (?) virgins down there waiting for them.

I could never be the one to put someone to death ... but he certainly deserved it ... I do think he would have been pretty miserable living in prison, tho ...
His punishment was nothing compared to the poor man he put thru a woodchipper (alive) feet first! Sometimes I do think...
"an eye for an eye". Maybe more people would think twice before murdering someone...

Terri