« One Trick Pony | Main | (State) Researcher Fnd No Signs of "Iraq War Syndrome" »

May 16, 2006

Vengence or Judgement?

I received this LTTE from the media alert bot at the Ayn Rand Institute. It is surprising because its logic and moral clarity start out so well but then become so muddled as it proceeds. Read it.

"Dear Editor:

"As Saddam Hussein's trial resumes, he will face further charges for
slaughtering thousands of Kurds--but Hussein deserves no regular
trial. A trial that presumes him innocent is a travesty of justice.
Hussein is not a private citizen, whose guilt requires proof in an
objective court of law, but a dictator whose incontestable evil was
manifest to any rational observer of his tyranny.

Hussein deserves to be definitively condemned as evil and then
executed--immediately or after any valuable information is extracted
from him. Prior to his execution, there can be a legitimate reason to
hold a public hearing--not to establish his guilt, but to fully expose his secretive dictatorship's myriad vile deeds. Such a hearing would acknowledge that as dictator he is responsible for all crimes
committed by his regime.

Instead of endorsing the trial of Saddam Hussein, the United States
should withdraw its moral sanction from such corrupt proceedings.

Elan Journo"

Saddam Hussein does deserve to be punished and without the need for an elaborate, expensive and interminably long show trial too. His guilt needs no further proof. However the people were injured, tortured, imprisoned, exiled, stolen from or otherwise harmed are the ones who are more entitled to justice here.

In other words the people of Iraq, Iran, and Kuwait. What standing in law or moral philosophy does Mr.(?) Journo have to demand Hussein’s imprisonment or death? Or the United States government either for that matter? Mr. Journo should address the standing issue directly before demanding to spring the trap on Saddam's gallows. It's only rational, eh? Otherwise his screed seems more appropriate for the leader of a lynch mob.

Posted by Ali Massoud at May 16, 2006 04:20 PM

Comments

Post a comment