Anyone else bothered by the death of Saddam Hussein? No doubt, he committed horrendous crimes during this tyrannical reign. But as I watched reports of his death last night, I had a pit in my stomach and yes, even felt sorry for the man. Am I crazy? Would I feel differently if I had been a family member of one of those 100,000+ Kurds who were gased to death by Saddam?
My unease probably stems from my disagreement with the death penalty in general. Living in Illinois where 13 men formerly on death row have been exhonerated suggests to me that our justice system is not infallible enough to responsibly carry out justice through putting someone to death. Obviously, in this case, there's no doubt of Saddam's guilt. But still, it just doesn't seem right to me that causing the death of a person in any way brings about justice in this world.
Apparently, according to an article in the New York Times, the Vatican and the European Union agree with me. Here's an excerpt:
"Erkki Tuomioja, the foreign minister of Finland, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said: “The European Union has a very consistent stand on opposing the death penalty and it should not have been applied in this case either — even though there is no doubt about Saddam Hussein’s guilt over serious violations against human rights.”
In an editorial, The Guardian newspaper in London said: “The death penalty is an unacceptably cruel and unusual punishment, even in Iraq.”
Indeed, the Vatican went so far as to call the execution “tragic” — echoing expressions of revulsion by Muslim leaders, both in the West and in the broader Islamic world.
“A capital punishment is always tragic news, a reason for sadness, even if it deals with a person who was guilty of grave crimes,” said Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. “The killing of the guilty party is not the way to reconstruct justice and reconcile society. On the contrary, there is a risk that it will feed a spirit of vendetta and sow new violence.”
2 comments:
I, too, felt the same way and it surprised me. In fact, I didn't realize that the death penalty bothered me until this. I felt that somehow, his blood was on my hands ... and is on our collective hands as a nation. Yes, perhaps if I knew more details and heard victim accounts of his atrocities I would feel differently - but I'm not sure. For instance, if Hitler had been executed -- would we feel the same?
Are we now left with the lesson that we value human rights so much that we would kill another to prove it?
Not being Iraqis, we don't know whether Justice was served or not.
Post a Comment