The Tyrant is hanged

Saddam Hussein was executed, a fate he well deserved. In fact, he was treated far more humanely, both in his trial and by his manner of death, than he deserved. He was a tyrant,
a type of man all too familiar to history. He was not the first and he will not be the last, but his fate is what they all merit.

I do not understand the handwringing of moralists about capital punishment. It seems to me that, ironically, they have lost touch with their humanity. They think themselves too good for this world. This world, the one we live in, on this planet, requires violence not only to survive but to promote the good. As with pacifism, a "higher" morality which actually serves the goals of brutal tyrants, so with anti-death-penalty positions.

I took no pleasure in the news of Saddam's death. That is without significance; it is simply the emotional reaction I had. If I had felt pleasure in it, that would not be particularly significant either. But it was right, in either case.

So-called humanitarians assert that human life is of such supreme value that no other human has the right to take it. I find this unbelievable on its face. However, it seems to me that if human life is so valuable, and if a man has been directly responsible for the unjustified deaths of so many, and so gruesomely, and so chronically, and they are unwilling to extract from him what he values most, ie his own life...then it is they who do not honor human life.

As I do with so much progressive posturing, I find this position to be drenched in moral narcissism. If Saddam did not deserve death, then no one does. And if no one deserves to die for what they do, then crimes become trivial.