Quote of the week
[T]he moral point of the matter is never reached by calling what happened by the name of ‘genocide’ or by counting the many millions of victims: extermination of whole peoples had happened before in antiquity, as well as in modern colonization. It is reached only when we realize this happened within the frame of a legal order and that the cornerstone of this ‘new law’ consisted of the command ‘Thou shall kill,’ not thy enemy but innocent people who were not even potentially dangerous, and not for any reason of necessity but, on the contrary, even against all military and other utilitarian calculations. … And these deeds were not committed by outlaws, monsters, or raving sadists, but by the most respected members of respectable society.
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil
Saddam HUssein Executed this morning
Saddam Hussein was executed this morning in Bagdad after being convicted of various attrocities by a court of sorts.
For me his execution is a reminder that in international affairs there is no such thing as morality.
Many of the attrocities for which Hussein was sentenced to death was committed during the time when the USA supported him and his regime. If he never turned against the USA he would probably still have been in power today.
Even if one supports the death penalty – which I do not – the killing of Hussein in these circumstances under the auspices of the USA seems like a stain on the name of the country who is supposed to be the beacon of liberty in our world.
