Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been executed by hanging.
The execution took place around 6:00am Baghdad time Saturday.
source
Every day, I fight for the right to life of unborn children. I don't think you can be a serious pro-lifer and not recognize how precious life is.
Saddam Hussein was a morally corrupt man, it goes without saying. Nevertheless, he was endowed with the same humanity that is made in the image and likeness of God. Nothing that he did ever changed that. And although we certainly have a duty to denounce his crimes, prosecute them and revile what he stands for, he nevertheless shared in our human nature.
There was no need to execute Saddam. If the West had had the political will, he could have been spared and exiled to some place where he would not have been a danger to anyone. If the US can spend billions of dollars on nuclear weapons for a potential threat, it can spend some millions to protect from a real one. I do think that he could have mounted a counter-resistance, even from jail. The Mexican Mafia orders hits from jail using ingenius methods of communication. But complete isolation-- say in the High Arctic-- could have made it impossible for him to make a comeback.
But I think the fact that Saddam was such a moral scumbag made elected officials in the West reluctant to earnestly work towards his release. No one wants to be the advocate of Saddam Hussein. I'm not even keen on writing this post. He is a loathsome man. But his humanity alone should be worth something.
I won't go so far as to say that the West has no appreciation for the value of human life. However, what I've noticed is that it can relativize its value very easily when it's convenient.
