Moral justification for the execution of criminals of war?

[bennyboy]

The problem with justice is that it lessons the intensity of our efforts to prevent.  It gives the illusion that there can be balance in the world, and that we are the bringers of balance, through punishment.

I recommend treating crime prevention as a procedural issue, not a justice issue.  A dead man is much cheaper, and has an infinitely lower chance of recommitting his crimes.  Making tax payers support this guy for $50k / year or whatever in order to torture him psychologically when he can just be removed-- I'd rather have improved health care and a few less pot holes.

It's actually MORE costly to taxpayers to execute someone than it is to incarcerate them long term. I mean, unless you want to scrap all that pesky, pricey stuff like lawyers, evidence, appeals...you know - 'rights'.

Boru

That's not a problem with execution. That's a problem with the execution process. I could (and probably would) take out a convicted child rapist for about $10.

And if we're so big on rights, I would think that a life sentence, being almost as life-ruining as an execution, should be subject to all those same expenses. But we seem pretty comfortable with depriving a (black) man of his liberty until his existence ends if he takes about 3 wrong turns in life.

To get back to the OP: criminals of war. I don't particularly think we NEED justification. If we are lucky enough to win a war, we can string up whomever we want on a pretext-- the purpose of the pretext being to give us an excuse to pat ourselves on the back for our moral virtue more than anything else.

[Jehanne]

To sum up your post, "Might makes right."

[The Grand Nudger]

I doubt that you'll get much traction with a plan to kill people for $10 in a thread questioning the morality of executions. Have a little self respect, anyway. 10$ won't get you the therapy you'd probably need afterwards.

[Macoleco]

It's actually MORE costly to taxpayers to execute someone than it is to incarcerate them long term. I mean, unless you want to scrap all that pesky, pricey stuff like lawyers, evidence, appeals...you know - 'rights'.

Boru

That's not a problem with execution. That's a problem with the execution process. I could (and probably would) take out a convicted child rapist for about $10.

And if we're so big on rights, I would think that a life sentence, being almost as life-ruining as an execution, should be subject to all those same expenses. But we seem pretty comfortable with depriving a (black) man of his liberty until his existence ends if he takes about 3 wrong turns in life.

To get back to the OP: criminals of war. I don't particularly think we NEED justification. If we are lucky enough to win a war, we can string up whomever we want on a pretext-- the purpose of the pretext being to give us an excuse to pat ourselves on the back for our moral virtue more than anything else.

Then in that was it was immoral.

[Macoleco]

To sum up your post, "Might makes right."

Indeed if the Nazis had won, the ones executed would have been the Americans and English.

[Deesse23]

... a life sentence, being almost as life-ruining as an execution, .....

Please re-read what you wrote here, and let it sink in for 5 seconds.

[bennyboy]

... a life sentence, being almost as life-ruining as an execution, .....

Please re-read what you wrote here, and let it sink in for 5 seconds.

I don't need to re-read it, because I thought about it when I wrote it.  It depends what you mean by "life."

If you're talking biology, death is absolute.  It's the worst thing that can happen.

But if you're talking about the human narrative-- growth, discovery, pleasure, ambition, hope, and so on-- I'd say that a life sentence is pretty much the end of a meaningful human existence.  It is sufficiently horrible that it should automatically trigger the same compensations and considerations of execution-- extensive appeals, discovery of new evidence, and so on.

In short, re a previous post, an execution should NOT be more expensive to carry out than a life sentence.

[bennyboy]

I doubt that you'll get much traction with a plan to kill people for $10 in a thread questioning the morality of executions.  Have a little self respect, anyway.  10$ won't get you the therapy you'd probably need afterwards.

Yeah, I thought about that.  I probably wouldn't do it for any amount, after all.  But you could pretty easily find someone to do it, probably just for shits and giggles.

[bennyboy]

To sum up your post, "Might makes right."

Not really.  If you have might,  you don't even NEED to be right.  You might pretend to be in the right, though, just for the PR of it.

Ask the thousands of brown people, many of them women and children, that have been bombed by American drones in the past decades, under administrations of both parties.  You don't see Obama crying over little 6-year old Ahmed, the goat-herder's son.

[Jehanne]

To sum up your post, "Might makes right."

Not really.  If you have might,  you don't even NEED to be right.  You might pretend to be in the right, though, just for the PR of it.

Ask the thousands of brown people, many of them women and children, that have been bombed by American drones in the past decades, under administrations of both parties.  You don't see Obama crying over little 6-year old Ahmed, the goat-herder's son.

Which is probably why Humanity is destined to destroy itself. Don't even think about talking to the destitute goat herders in Afghanistan about their poor efficiency gas engines.