verdict on saddam in...

[MetalMilitia]

I'm not sure how I feel about the death penalty. While on one hand I don't think this world is any place for someone as evil as Saddam (and his former intellegence chief). It's strange that in a so called civilized society we can support the Iraq legal system's decision for what some would call a particularly barbaric method of execution.

It's not easy to have any sympathy for a person willing to cause so much misery to so many people, but I think there should be some regard for the bigger picture.

EDIT: I posted my thoughts in a better way elsewhere:


I haven't had enough time on this one to form a properly reasoned opinion but I have a few thoughts.

Firstly it's hard to justfy supporting a decision, in this day and age, which involves this syle of what some would call barbaric execution method. Not that Saddam and his intellegence chief deserve anything less but there must be some consideration for the bigger picture; it's the year 2006, science and technology are reaching previously unimaginable levels and planetary ethics as a whole might be considered as good as they've ever been. But yet there still seems to be a consensus that this verdict is acceptable.

Conversely why should the Iraqie people pay for Saddam to be held for the rest of his life in relative (...to a hangman's noose) comfort. The level of security required for a prisoner as high profile as Saddam would be extreme and by the same token so would the cost of it's upkeep for the next 10 or 20+ years.
This is almost a special case in which a line must be drawn in the sand; Saddam cannot directly affect the world anymore. He has to go, but more importantly he has to go in the method chosen by the Iraq legal system and by the hands of Iraqies. How else will they progress unless they made the decisions which affect their country.

Either way something must happen to cement Sadam's status as a past dictator which will forever remain in the past and if this must be it, so be it.