Letter to the Editor
Does Saddam deserve to die? Of course he does. After all, look at what he's done. He used chemical weapons against Iraqis. He tortured people at Abu Ghraib. He had an advanced domestic surveillance program. People were hauled off to secret prisons where people were tortured.
Now we have defeated him and even though we removed the evil tyrant, we used chemical weapons, and we tortured Iraqis at Abu Ghraib. Our government is surveillance us and we have a network of secret prisons where people are tortured. Now every day Iraqis torture each other and Americans collect the bodies on the streets as they kill each other in civil war.
For the last 1400 years since the dawn of Islam there has been war, and torture, and killing, and tyrants. Does Saddam deserve to die? Clearly he does. The middle east is full of people who deserve to die. War after all is about killing people who deserve to die. Saddam's execution is but another step in a 1400 year old tradition of vengeance against the evildoers and we hand this down as an example to the children of humanity. Our wars will continue for yet another generation.
If war is about the killing of those who deserve to die then what is peace? Is peace not the point where we stop killing those who deserve to die? So as we kill Saddam tonight I ask this question, "Is it worth it?" Especially when you consider that Iraq is actually worse off now, and that all the bad things that we killed Saddam for are still going on. Saddam is dead. Tomorrow Iraqis will kill and torture each other. As it has been for centuries, nothing has changed. The killing doesn't stop until we stop the killing.