More Iraqi executions
By Michael J.W. Stickings
Breaking news from the BBC:
Yes, these were truly two reprehensible human beings. Given the crimes they committed, an argument can be made, I suppose, that they didn't deserve to live and that life imprisonment wouldn't have been enough of a punishment.
And yet I object to their executions just as I did to Saddam's. I am against the death penalty in all cases -- which is to say, my opposition to it is absolute -- but there are other important considerations here, too. After all that happened under Saddam -- indeed, after that has happened since under the mostly American occupation -- Iraq does not need more death. It does not need more blood on its hands, particularly with the sectarianism raging as civil war and a government linked to the Shiites lacking full legitimacy. What good does it do to kill even the worst members of Saddam's regime? It all just seems like vengeance, the sort of grotesque vengeance witnessed at Saddam's execution.
What should have happened to these two? Exactly what should have happened to Saddam. They should have been tried at the International Criminal Court at The Hague for all their many crimes against humanity, and not just for a specific event targeting Shiites, then sentenced to life imprisonment.
That would have been just, humane, and good for Iraq.
Breaking news from the BBC:
The half-brother of Saddam Hussein and the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court have been hanged, prosecutor Munqith al-Faroon has said.
The two executions were carried out before dawn on Monday, he added.
Barzan al-Tikriti and Awad Hamad al-Bandar were convicted over the killing of 148 Shias after a 1982 attempt on Saddam's life in Dujail...
Barzan al-Tikriti was Saddam Hussein's half-brother and served as the head of Iraq's feared secret police, the Mukhabarat...
Awad Hamad al-Bandar was chief justice of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court. According to his indictment, he conducted show trials which often lead to summary death sentences.
Yes, these were truly two reprehensible human beings. Given the crimes they committed, an argument can be made, I suppose, that they didn't deserve to live and that life imprisonment wouldn't have been enough of a punishment.
And yet I object to their executions just as I did to Saddam's. I am against the death penalty in all cases -- which is to say, my opposition to it is absolute -- but there are other important considerations here, too. After all that happened under Saddam -- indeed, after that has happened since under the mostly American occupation -- Iraq does not need more death. It does not need more blood on its hands, particularly with the sectarianism raging as civil war and a government linked to the Shiites lacking full legitimacy. What good does it do to kill even the worst members of Saddam's regime? It all just seems like vengeance, the sort of grotesque vengeance witnessed at Saddam's execution.
What should have happened to these two? Exactly what should have happened to Saddam. They should have been tried at the International Criminal Court at The Hague for all their many crimes against humanity, and not just for a specific event targeting Shiites, then sentenced to life imprisonment.
That would have been just, humane, and good for Iraq.
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
12:23 AM
2 Comments:
The official video shows masked men dealing death once again. Barzan Hassan Al Tikriti lying under the gallows, his head torn from his body with such force that it rested ten feet away - is this an image designed to bring "closure" or "healing" or is this another bloody image from a bloody religious war?
By
Capt. Fogg, at 10:56 AM
Truly revolting.
By
Michael J.W. Stickings, at 2:09 AM
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