The Forum > General Discussion > May God have mercy on his soul
May God have mercy on his soul
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I haven't spoken to anyone today (including people at church - not every Christian thinks like BD) who hasn't felt some sense of regret about his death. It's one thing for a government to send someone, like a soldier, to a place where they may die; it is another to exert the force of the state in a way where a man will most certainly die. I have regrets, but ultimately think it is better Hussein was hung. I don't believe in capital punishment for normal crimes, but his instance is different.
There is no doubt that he was guilty of very heinous crimes. You can quibble about how legally perfect his trial was, but I don't believe that a fairer tribunal would have come to a different conclusion. So one argument against capital punishment - that it can't be reversed if the criminal is subsequently found to be innocent - doesn't apply.
More importantly, while incarceration can deal with the danger that most criminals present to the community, in the case of Saddam, it can't. While he was alive he represented an unacceptable security risk, so it is reasonable and just that he be permanently removed.
But I still feel regret at the necessity of his death. I am also conscious, as he himself argued with his captors, that along with the bad he did some good. Not nearly enough in my mind to redeem him, but who am I to make that judgement?