Gould,
You seem to be one of the few wise political pundits in rec.boats. Most
sides want to assume that everything my side does is good, and everything
your side does is bad. It is nice to see someone who can look beyond trying
to making political gains on every current event. The one sided politics
that is the norm in rec.boats (and with many politicians) does nothing to
correct any of the problems we face and just alienates the average voter.


"Gould 0738" wrote in message
...
My fellow liberals are reaching way out there on this one.

The difference between an execution in Texas and a beheading in Iraq is a
trial
by a jury of peers and the protection afforded by civil law. In Texas,
there is
something of an appeals process available so that the condemned can make a
legal attempt to
save his/her life and the court system will review the trial to sure that
the
conviction was legal and proper (by Texas standards): a different
consideration
than whether the punishment is humane and/or appropriate.

Civilized people conduct a *legal* trial before an execution, or formally
declare war. Once war is declared, a civilized force attempts to avoid
killing
or harming
non-combatants. One test of a civilized society is the amount of stress it
can
endure before principles are abandoned and the rule of law evaporates.

We are more moved by the death of one young man, shown on a graphic snuff
film,
than by the deaths of the 750 plus Americans and thousands of Iraqis so
far in
this thing. That is normal. He is no less dead than any of the others, but
the
criminal terrorist *******s who murdered him in cold blood understood a
fundamental aspect of their deed. Giving the victim a name, a face, a
hometown,
relatives, etc in those few seconds before they butchered him makes him
identifiable as a son, a nephew, the kid next door, etc.
In the aggregate American public consciousness,
Berg is far more dead than any 1/750th of the military dead so far.

The individuals responsible for the murder should be hunted down,
arrested, and
punished according to the prevailing local laws. Only one of the wretched,
snivelling cowards identified himself on the tape, but that's a place to
start.
They have a few methods of execution in the Arab world that would make
hanging,
firing squad, or lethal injection seem almost humane in comparison. And
most
likely a helluva lot less appeal availble in Iraq than in Texas.