Shall he be killed?
 

Hi,

I am struggling with a certain moral issue for a while now and I still could not make up my mind. I would like to ask the community to tell me their opinion on this topic responsibly because that is going to influence me. You can be part of my moral education now. :P

So there is a guy who is about to be killed but I have got strong feelings against it. How to summarize my feelings... I want you to know why I am struggling with it. This guy is Saddam Hussein. His death penalty is going to be executed tomorrow or after tomorrow.

My faith says do not kill. This is the 5th commandment. I the USA there are 3 things that is above every other rights. The natural rights. Life, freedom, property. I was thought by my teachers that doing something against these 3 natural rights is the worst. My faith says that do not kill. Be merciful.
On the other hand many people think that it is proper to kill a man for his sins that he made against the mankind. I am pretty sure that he will suffer after his death but do you think that we should take away his most precious gift, that God gave him, his life? Do you think that it is not enough to send him to Jail till the end of his life? Do you think that we should take away that little chance to regret what he has done? Maybe it is not gonna happen in this decade or in the following but maybe in the 3rd it will. Maybe it is going to change him, maybe he might find his true faith and he might find forgiveness.
He made terrible things, I admit. I was angry, I was disappointed and I wanted him to die but now I forgave him. It is hard, it is always harder but you know, without it we, we are not any better than he is. We must be more merciful, we must want to be a better men than he is, we must try to follow the right path.
By killing him, we are not any better than he is, he was or he is going to be.

I hope the admins and moderators are not going to close this topic as it means a lot to me.

Dani

I threw away my vote on "let him free". I thought that was funny. :D

Let me ask you a question. Why is it that you live in a country that has the death penalty, yet this one mans death bothers you?

He is being sent to death with a law he passed, need I say any more.

What about the rights of the people that he killed.

I do not live in the USA. I am Hungarian and I am disgusted that the people in the USA authorized the government to kill. The government of the USA is representing the people's will there and if the government kills somebody that means that you are partly the murderer. I do not want to be part of such government. I will never be.

I do not wish him to die as I do not wish anyone else to be killed. I hate what has happened and I hate that there is war. I want peace.

Yes... He ignored these rights I agree. But the eye for eye is not working any more. Maybe it was a couple thousand years ago but now I believe that NOBODY has got the right to kill anyone even tho that person in Saddam Hussein.

I'm confused then, can you please explain this quote
Also there is not just one man has been sentenced, do the others not matter to you?

I don't believe that Humans should kill other humans. Regardless of Religion or 'Rights.'

Sure... It might be confusing, I admit. I am an exchange student now in the USA and I will stay there as a guest for a while. I normally live in Hungary but now I stay in the USA and I am studying your government so that I can see what is going on. :P

Although he's shown no mercy to anyone who has been killed under his command, I've gotta say, grant him mercy and snuff him out as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Nothing good can come from a thread like this.

Perhaps some people will reconsider the "validity" of the death penalty. That would be, IMHO, a "good" thing.

There are several organizations in the US opposing the use of the death penalty. (For example, the Catholic Church.)

Validity? What is valid is a matter of opinion, but I guess anyone that has an opinion other that of someone else shouldnt,...... :rolleyes:
All states dont have the death penalty, Each state has a right to disallow it if they choose to do so.

I live in a state (in the US) that doesn't have the death penalty. Politically, I am opposed to it with two exceptions; terrorists and gangsters. Terrorist groups will take hostages and demand the release from prison of their comrads. This happened more frequently in the 70's. A gangster can have people killed while in prison. Until he was released by the NY Governer, Lucky Luciano, controlling the International Longshoreman's Union, was able to sink more liberty ships in US harbours, than the Nazis. He held the survival of Great Britain hostage by denying them supplies from the US.

Well, whatever anyones thoughts on this matter, he is no longer with us. He can now be known as "Our Dearly Departed"

If killing 148 people doesn't qualify you for death I don't know what does...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/...bit/index.html

I don't have any aspirations of being better or more merciful or whatever PC term you want to throw out. Thou shalt not kill is an interesting concept how about an eye for an eye? Justice is an important part of society. Mercy has it's place but 148 deaths might be a few too many to slap him on the wrist and make him sit in the corner.

I must have been driven insane by living in New York City.
There are times when I reason that " The State " or government makes far too many mistakes in death penalty cases to allow the death penalty.
There are other times when I reason that there are far too many criminals and mentally sick people walking the streets preying on the good people.
I sometimes contemplate putting them on a ship and dumping them into the ocean to feed the sharks.

I can't wait to see where this thread will go to (unless a moderator closes it).

Voted for the "I would kill him", myself. Some people said stuff about people not having the right to kill other people, regardless of who they are. Even if they are enemies during a war? Even if they are a captured "Hitler"? (Imagine Hitler would have been captured.. should have he been sentenced to death?).

Also.. why shouldn't "we" have the power/right to execute certain people? He who's known only how to kill, will now learn how to die. Should Ted Bundy have been spared of the death penalty? F* that.

While he's executed and all that, it's like crushing an ant with heavy boots. Sometimes no matter how wicked the ant was, it's only human psychology to feel a passing sympathy for the ant.

Maybe if Saddam had been a more demonic figure like Adolf Hitler was, maybe there would have been less sympathy. Saddam may have been evil, there was definitely a magnitude difference between his power and the power of real terrorist organizations which should be the main focus of the US efforts.

A bit off-topic but: for those who have seen the images of the moments before execution.. Saddam gets a black .. thing.. around his neck.. what is it? what is it for?

Just goes to prove we're no better. Congratulations!

He was just as "democratically" elected as politicians are in the US. "Criminals" here aren't allowed to vote either.

And if killing criminals is OK, then he couldn't possibly have "murdered" anyone either. Those were merely "executions" too.

So, in short, he only killed criminals who weren't allowed to vote. That's EXACTLY like the political and legal system we have in America. :o

Wikipedia is updated now with info about his execution. To kill or not to kill, that's the question. I would personally be against sending him to jail for the rest of his days. It costs money and it is not like we were going to teach this mad bastard a lesson anyway. However, his death most likely won't change anything.

One thing is certain: The World is better without him...

Kill the bastard!!!

He deserves it. And what about these faith, religion things? God, where is God? All the laws and religions are man made stuff. The world runs with cracked guns and crooked money.
“Give me control of a nation’s money, and I care not who writes it’s laws…” Meyer Armschel Rothschild 1790

Its always been an eye for an eye since the dawn of human race, why should it be any different now! You kill my brother, i'll kill your entire family!

PS : My personal opinions, got nothing to do with my caste, country, religion etc

You're kidding right?

Saddam would most certainly have eliminated the Iranian nuclear threat. And between the religious zealots there and the Jesus freaks here, we're all one step closer to their lunacy of Armagedon and the "end of time".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschatology

The world is definitely a more dangerous place since Saddam was removed from power. You must be spending too much time watching the propaganda networks (Fox News and CNN).

Sure it is, but why not get rid of him in the first gulf war? What happened now is like the Allies defeating Germany in WW2, leaving Hitler alive, but then returning a decade later to finish the job. I agree that he did deserve to die, but in the process, he has been turned into a martir and even more of an icon. I would rather have thrown him in a jail, like the ones he ran, and let him rot there for the rest of his life.

Plus, there are other dictators that the world could do without:

- Robert Mogabe
- Pol Pot ("retired", but guilty none the less...)
- Gaddafi
- Putin
- Ahmadinejad
- Kim Jong Il

But whats wrong with the obove mentioned people? Their countries don't have oil, or they are too powerful.
If the USA is on a moral crusade to rid the world of tyrants, it may as well be done properly...

Interesting perspective...
I think you may be right that Saddam would deal with Iran--and he did maintain some order in Iraq. But at what price? We have tyrants all over the world maintaining order by indulging in some form of abuse of people. Some of these abuses tend to get more media attention than others.

The issue in Iraq is whether it is America's right or duty to tell that country what kind of leader they should have.

Think about how the middle east would be without American oil dollars flowing in. Many believe that THAT is the issue which needs to be dealt with.

Agreed.

And who granted ye the power to judge whether whom lives and whom dies!?
The last time I looked, only God decides beyond life and death. No one else should do so.

And for those who think "but he made so many crimes!" SO WHAT!? Didn't Jesus told to forgive and love your enemies?

US should stop sticking their nose in others' countries business. U.S.A. DOESN'T NOT OWN THE WORLD'S FREEDOM. You (U.S.A.) people that think so, are no better than Saddam himself.

So if someone was coming at you and their plan was to kill you, you'd let them?

Regardless, Saddam Hussein didn't recieve a fair trial. He probably wouldn't have gotten a fair trial on this planet. If I were him or in his position, I'd rather die myself than rot in jail for the remainder of my life. It is kind of bothersome though, that it wasn't really the Iraqi's pushing for his death but everyone with any type of common sense the U.S. Government played a big role in speeding up such process.

Funny how he was tried and convicted for killing 148 people in the Dujail massacre, a town that made an attempt of an assassination on him. Did 148 people in that town need to die? Probably not, some or most were probably innocent bystanders. Did Saddam deserve to die, probably not, his day was coming anyways. Could one say that Bush is no better since the War he started and the invasion of Iraq has caused over 655,000 deaths? I think Bush is trying to overtake Hitler in deathcounts under his belt..

Same could be said about every leader in the world, whether it's a war they start, a bill they pass that might prevent new drugs that could save people's lives, a bill that allows corporations to pollute our communities and the planet we live on and need to survive.. the list goes on and on..

It's taking the most predictable path just like all threads of this nature eventually do.

>executed.<

I believe the Hebrew translation says murder, not kill. You have a right to defend yuorself, and protect your family and property.

If you live in the US, I suggest you read the Constitution and the Federalist papers. I'll leave you with this quote:
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it's natural manure."
--Thomas Jefferson to William S. Smith on Nov 13 1787

IIRC he was tried under Iraqi law in an Iraqi court. Anyhow, it's too late now.

Added to which, LQ is not a politics/morality/religion forum. Just because General is a bit more off-topic to the rest of the boards, we shouldn't try to open up these sorts of posts here.