Saddam's Death Sentence

Saddam Hussein has lost his appeal of the sentence of death that was handed down to him last month. He will likely be executed within the next thirty days.

I do not believe that Saddam should be executed. In the first place, my disagreement with the sentence stems from the fact that I disagree with the death penalty in general. I do not believe that executions solve anything, and killing only leads to more death. In the second place, I do not believe that Saddam Hussein received a fair trial. Among, other injustices, Saddam's lawyers were not allowed to make closing statements at his trial, and had their microphones summarily cut off when the presiding judge did not like what they were saying. The presiding judge himself had reason to be biased against Saddam because his family had suffered in the crushing of the Shiite revolt that followed the First Gulf War. Saddam simply did not receive a fair trial.

There will be those who say that he has no right to a fair trial because he denied that right to so many others. But to say such a thing reduces the rest of the world to his level, the level of a murderous dictator. Every person has a right to due process and no act can strip a person of that right. Personally, I believe that Saddam was guilty of the crimes of which he was accused, but a free trial should have been held. Saddam could likely have been convicted on the strength of the existing evidence. I would have liked to have seen Saddam convicted in a fair trial before an impartial judge and sentenced to life imprisonment. That is the appropriate punishment for what he did. To rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

In all likelihood, the execution of Saddam will spark off yet another wave of violence in Iraq, that will result in the deaths of yet more innocent Iraqis. The civilian population of Iraq is not a legitimate target for the insurgents, only the occupying forces. The bombs set off by insurgents that kill Iraqi civilians are just as detestable as the American bombs that kill Iraqi civilians or the Canadian artillery shells that kill Afghani civilians. Violence can not bring about a better world, it only leads to more violence.

This will be my last post of the year, and to everyone reading it I wish you a happy new year, and a healthy and prosperous 2007.

Cheers

Days Remaining in Bush Presidency: 756