Saddam Is Dead

Saddam has been executed by hanging. This did not bring me any joy. Even for people whom I would have happily read about being shot to death during their capture, I cannot bring myself to be happy when executions are carried out.


I'm always left with the thought that there was a human life, however useless their life might be. And then, through a deliberate act, that person, whom I could have talked to, joked with, hugged, had a debate with, eaten dinner with, and who might have helped me in a time of need, that person is simply dead, no longer here.

Given the focus on life, and how we would all do almost anything to try to save the life of a complete stranger who we saw in trouble, it's just not in my nature to be happy about the opposite taking place, even if it is lawful (religiously and legally) and the result of a deliberative process.

I'm not a rabid anti-death-penalty person. I support the penalty for crimes of murder beyond the SHADOW OF A DOUBT, like for example Mohammad and Malvo (the beltway snipers). I am loath to support it for circumstancial guilt, or for cases where it isn't clear there was a motive to kill involved, etc.

But there's a big difference between having an intellectual position on the death penalty, and the personal response to it's execution.

So for me, there will be no celebration for the termination of Saddam Hussein. A creation of God is no longer, and only God can know whether that was a good or a bad thing.