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| quote: | Originally posted by Renegade
I oppose the death penalty as a general rule and I'm not about to make an exception in this case. Ghandi once said that a measure of a civilization is how well it treats its animals, but I think the same judgement can be made with regards to its treatment of criminals: no civilised population on the planet supports the murder of defenceless human beings. The belief that barbarism is a justifiable reaction to barbarism betrays a visceral, tribalistic morality, that has gradually been supplanted in the civilised world with the advent of reason. A population that suports capital punishment still has a lot of progress to make, in my opinion. I can sympathise with the desire of many Iraqis to see Saddam Hussein hanged, but that doesn't make it right. The execution of criminals is, was and always will be wrong, cultural relativism be damned.
You can only receive the death sentence once, no matter how many crimes you've committed.
Also because the ICC doesn't support the death penalty. Genocidal political leaders (from the Nazis onward) have always been tried by international tribunals, so I'm not sure why an exception was made in the case of Saddam Hussein. In fact, I'm not even sure what crime he was charged with: was genocide illegal in Iraq when he was in power?
The trial was a farce. He was denied access to his lawyers, who were in turn denied access to the evidence being presented by the prosecution. The trial proceded even when no member of the defence team was present and there were constant questions about the legitimacy of the court and the US trained judges. It's one thing to mete out the death penalty, it's quite another to mete out the death penalty at the end of a shonky trial.
Yes, because if there's one thing sure to take Iraq forward it's more death and reprisal. |
I certainly respect your opinion there Renegade and agree with you on the trial being unfair to say the least, but I must disagree with your stance on capital punishment. It's only fair that a murdered be "murdered" in return. Revenge or anything like that has nothing to do with it. The moment someone takes a life, unjustifiably, is the moment he/she gives up his/her right to live IMO. I fail to see how that's barbaric. But yes, it isn't exactly pleasant to see.
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"The Greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." -Stephen Hawking
"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me— and there was no one left to speak out for me." -Martin Niemöller
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