Terrorist Killed in Terrorist Attack
February 14, 2008 by scrubone
NRT opens up on the US after Imad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah leader was killed.
The US has said it welcomes the killing of a top Hezbollah commander implicated in numerous bomb attacks and a wave of hostage-taking in Lebanon in the 1980s. A US state department spokesman said the world would be a “better place” without Imad Mughniyeh, whom he called a “mass murderer and a terrorist”.
So, terrorism is bad, unless its directed at people the US doesn’t like, in which case its just peachy. And the US wonders why its “war on terror” has no credibility?
(As for Mughniyeh, I agree, he was a mass-murderer and a terrorist. But that just not justify his murder in a terrorist attack. When states stoop to such tactics, or welcome them, they become no better than terrorists themselves)
One is left wondering who deserves to be murdered in a terrorist attack, if not a terrorist?
I guess they should have captured him and head a trial before executing him. But then, Idiot/Savant isn’t too fussed on those either.
As for the sentence, while there would be a rich irony in Saddam suffering the same fate he inflicted on so many others, that would not be justice. Instead, it would simply be barbaric revenge, of exactly the sort Saddam inflicted upon the hapless residents of Dujail. While the desire for it is human and understandable, the act itself is nothing more than sadism, inflicting pain and death solely for the pleasure it gives. That is the ethical system of a kitten-strangling psychopath, not a civilised human being.
It is wrong to kill. It is especially wrong to kill for pleasure. Not even Saddam deserves to die in this way. Instead, he should be imprisoned for the rest of his natural life. That’s a perfectly sufficient punishment for his actions - and one that shows that we are not at all like him.
But the fact is, that Mr Mughniyeh was engaged in a war, outside the rules of war. He is now dead - that is a good thing regardless of how he died. Chances are excellent he was killed by those he declared war on, so much the better.
He was not killed “for pleasure” (nor was Saddam). He was killed because he killed, he died at the hand of the sword he wielded because that was the only way to do so.
It would be nice if we could all fight cleanly, and even do away with war altogether. But that is not going to happen any time soon. We in New Zealand can afford to wait, Israel cannot.
