Hasan Should Die By Firing Squad. But Not On TV.
There is a difference - a chasm, in fact - between opposing capital punishment and opposing public executions.
Apparently that’s a difficult concept for the hordes of frothing X members who have been calling me the “b” word, the “c” word and worse (“liberal,” for instance) simply for suggesting over the weekend that President Trump nix the public part of Nidal Hasan’s execution on Dec. 3.
Don’t watch, they sneered. We want to see him die.
As far as I’m concerned, we can kill the man with bullets dipped in pig’s blood and throw his riddled corpse in a landfill to be eaten by dogs. But we shouldn’t turn the death of this human dirtball into a public spectacle.
Let me be clear, what Nidal Hasan did 17 years ago, when this raging jihadist Army major betrayed his country and his fellow soldiers by training a rifle on unarmed men and women (including a pregnant woman) killing 13 and injuring 32 of his brethren, was a heinous crime. He actually killed 14. One of the soldiers was pregnant and begged for the life of her baby before this Islamic maniac shot her in the head.
His motive was never in doubt: Hasan opened fire while shouting “Alluha Akbar!”
A military jury convicted him of mass murder and sentenced him to die. Unfortunately, it’s taken almost two decades to get Hasan a date with his executioners.
Last week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that Hasan’s death by firing squad would be live streamed from Ft. Hood.
Big mistake.
This is not a sporting event or a political rally. It’s an execution.
Hasan deserves to die for what he did. A firing squad comprised of American soldiers will be justice. Justice delayed, but justice served nonetheless.
Let’s not turn the execution of a man in a wheelchair (Hasan was paralyzed from the gun fight that ensued taking him into custody) into a carnival.
We don’t conduct public executions in the U.S. for good reason: We are not members of a blood-lusting death cult. We recognize that capital punishment is something reserved for the worst of the worst but we don’t turn executions into cheap entertainment. Or worse, turn the scum of the earth into martyrs.
Public executions are wildly popular entertainment in countries with medieval sensibilities.
They love watching gay men hung from cranes in Iran. North Koreans are reportedly compelled to enjoy the spectacle of death-by-state. The Taliban are enthusiastic practitioners of public executions. So are Saudi Arabians who also gather to enjoy watching thieves lose limbs to swords swung by state officials.
We are better than the people in these inferior cultures. We are not savages. We maintain our humanity in the face of depravity, such as mass murders carried out by Army officers.
We conduct executions rarely and in as painless a manner as possible. We have witnesses present but we don’t execute murderers, no matter how depraved their acts, before cheering audiences.
President Trump said over the weekend he hadn’t decided if Hasan’s execution should be live-streamed. J.D. Vance said if it is live-streamed he will not watch.
I hope Trump listens to his better angels and not the folks who want to take us down a road where executions become entertainment.
