Fine, You Won.
Zacarias Moussaoui says he has won. Well, who am I to argue with him?
If one accepts the bizarro worldview of fundamentalist Islam, Moussaoui and the rest of Al Qaida pretty much secured their victory on September 11th, 2001 when they successfully carried out a string of hijackings then used the planes as weapons of mass murder. As a bonus, the hijackers assured themselves entrance into paradise. And while I'm no expert on Islam, crazed or otherwise, Zacarias Moussaoui probably figures that he's pretty much locked up some prime real estate in the next life as well.
We'll see about that.
The jury's decision not to have Moussaoui executed was not particularly stunning. Disappointing, perhaps, but not without reasons. Moussaoui's involvement in the September 11 suicide attacks was ultimately indirect; he knew of the plot but he didn't hijack a plane. Most of the usual reasons for capital punishment fall apart on these facts. Peggy Noonan, for instance, argues that the death penalty "is the expression of a certitude, of a shared national conviction, about the value of a human life ... society's way of saying that murder is serious, dreadfully serious, the most serious of all human transgressions."
But such an "expression" is worthless when its intended audience, under the sway of an ideology that views mass murder as virtuous, is almost guaranteed not to understand the message.
A stronger argument for Moussaoui's execution is that his fellow extremists will seek his release, most likely by taking hostages or making threats. But fundamentalist Islam is nothing if not a font of grievances. The existence of Israel, the refusal of America to submit to sharia -- as long as the likes of Osama bin Laden have followers, they will never lack for an excuse to commit mayhem.
Nor do I think it's fair to say that, by refusing to have him executed, the jury denied Moussaoui his martyrdom. What they have done is dragged his martyrdom out, and made it less of a spectacle. But adherents of Muslim extremism will still be taught to find Moussaoui admirable, as he suffers for his cause, such as it is.
I hope nobody takes this as defeatist. I think the west can and probably will win in the end, but I doubt we would have accomplished much by executing Moussaoui. (Though now that we've committed to letting him live, his escape or release would be a catastrophe.)
If one takes the Muslim extremists seriously, then this really was a no-win situation: give Moussaoui his martyrdom now or later, he's served his god and helped to kill a lot of infidels, by his reckoning he's won no matter what.
Fortunately, we are only obligated to take the terrorists so seriously; they mean what they say but their faith is barbarous and their politics are daft. We must take note of their threats but we don't live in their world. Zacarias Moussaoui may have one this round, but the US will recover. Moussaoui has one more judge to face. I doubt he'll win that round.
If one accepts the bizarro worldview of fundamentalist Islam, Moussaoui and the rest of Al Qaida pretty much secured their victory on September 11th, 2001 when they successfully carried out a string of hijackings then used the planes as weapons of mass murder. As a bonus, the hijackers assured themselves entrance into paradise. And while I'm no expert on Islam, crazed or otherwise, Zacarias Moussaoui probably figures that he's pretty much locked up some prime real estate in the next life as well.
We'll see about that.
The jury's decision not to have Moussaoui executed was not particularly stunning. Disappointing, perhaps, but not without reasons. Moussaoui's involvement in the September 11 suicide attacks was ultimately indirect; he knew of the plot but he didn't hijack a plane. Most of the usual reasons for capital punishment fall apart on these facts. Peggy Noonan, for instance, argues that the death penalty "is the expression of a certitude, of a shared national conviction, about the value of a human life ... society's way of saying that murder is serious, dreadfully serious, the most serious of all human transgressions."
But such an "expression" is worthless when its intended audience, under the sway of an ideology that views mass murder as virtuous, is almost guaranteed not to understand the message.
A stronger argument for Moussaoui's execution is that his fellow extremists will seek his release, most likely by taking hostages or making threats. But fundamentalist Islam is nothing if not a font of grievances. The existence of Israel, the refusal of America to submit to sharia -- as long as the likes of Osama bin Laden have followers, they will never lack for an excuse to commit mayhem.
Nor do I think it's fair to say that, by refusing to have him executed, the jury denied Moussaoui his martyrdom. What they have done is dragged his martyrdom out, and made it less of a spectacle. But adherents of Muslim extremism will still be taught to find Moussaoui admirable, as he suffers for his cause, such as it is.
I hope nobody takes this as defeatist. I think the west can and probably will win in the end, but I doubt we would have accomplished much by executing Moussaoui. (Though now that we've committed to letting him live, his escape or release would be a catastrophe.)
If one takes the Muslim extremists seriously, then this really was a no-win situation: give Moussaoui his martyrdom now or later, he's served his god and helped to kill a lot of infidels, by his reckoning he's won no matter what.
Fortunately, we are only obligated to take the terrorists so seriously; they mean what they say but their faith is barbarous and their politics are daft. We must take note of their threats but we don't live in their world. Zacarias Moussaoui may have one this round, but the US will recover. Moussaoui has one more judge to face. I doubt he'll win that round.
posted by A. at 7:10 PM
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