Reflecting on the Death of Saddam Hussein and the Death Penalty in General

As everyone is well aware of by now, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was executed for his crimes against the Iraqi people. History will likely remember Saddam as one of, if not the, most brutal and deadly dictators of the latter part of the 20th Century. His acts of war against Iran and Kuwait are well documented, his killings of political dissidents legendary, and well may well never know how many Iraqis were killed and dumped into mass graves under Saddam's rule. Many call Saddam the face of true evil, and I cannot say that I disagree with them.

All that being said, I have to say I have problems with his execution. Some of you may automatically call me a bleeding-heart liberal after reading that statement. I may be many things, but a bleeding-heart lib is not one of them. I am a pretty conservative guy. However I disagree strongly with many of my conservative brethren in regards to the death penalty. I am against capital punishment. Point blank, I think the death penalty is hypocritical. Saddam's punishment for killing a bunch of people is, he gets killed? In my mind, killing the killer lowers you to their level. And in some ways, I think he is getting off too easy. Letting him rot in prison for the rest of his life, forcing him to think about the many acts he committed and how far he has fallen would be worse than a quick death. How the former president fell all the way to common criminal living the rest of his life in a jail cell would be far worse to that narcissistic tyrant than just about anything.

Many death-penalty advocates say that capital punishment serves as a deterrent to would-be criminals, citing examples in the United States where the crime rate has dropped after bringint back the death penalty. I don't buy it. There have been many changes in the criminal justice system that I think have had more of an impact on the crime rate. Changes such as mandatory sentencing and three-strikes-and-you're-out policies adopted I believe have had more of an impact than capital punishment. Saying the death penalty has a deterrent effect is giving those capable of capital offenses a higher level of rationality than I think they're capable of.

In short, Saddam is finally meeting his maker and being held accountable for the untold number of people he has killed. But was determining the time and place really our decision to make? And did ordering his execution lower ourselves to his level? Is the lust for vengeance a trait that humans should have moved passed by now? Those are the questions I have this morning.