So You Wanna Be a Martyr

Listening to: Hercules
Mood: Content and calm

I just saw on the news today that Kahlid Sheik Mohammad’s trial is finally under way at Gitmo. It seems that our friendly neighborhood 9/11 terrorist would like to receive the death sentence and become a martyr. Keep in mind that this is a man who freely admits to orchestrating the suffering and death of thousands of innocent civilians. Enthusiastically. Is there any reason that anyone should care what this man wants, nonetheless give him what he wants?

So. Now that he was stupid enough to make his preference known, why in the world should we not do everything humanly possible to avoid turning this man into a martyr? Wouldn’t a miserable life in prison be much better of a punishment? The whole idea of justice and punishment is to keep society in line and discourage others from following the same path. Why should we encourage individuals to plan massive pain and suffering because of ideological differences only to have the consequences amount to becoming a hero in death? It makes no sense.

I generally hold this person in very low regard. He has proven himself to be arrogant, cruel, and stupid. I mean seriously. If you wanted to be a martyr, the best strategy when being judged by a country with a score to settle would probably have been to keep your mouth shut. You probably would have gotten your wish without much ado. I’m sure your lawyer would have explained this to you, had you not been arrogant enough to appoint yourself as your council. However, now that you have once again selfishly made your preferences known, I’m sure most Americans would much rather keep you alive just on principal rather than let you further your ideological religious heroism.

I’m not even going to get into how I feel about people who have no respect for the differences of others, not to mention causing intentional pain and suffering. I would be up on my soap box for hours.

So seriously, dude. Just shut up and think about what you’ll do about your trial. I hope you’re prepared to become someone’s bitch in jail for a long, long time. In fact, let’s just pipe in Eric Cartman’s “Kyle’s mom is a bitch” song just for good measure. I personally would find that to be fantastic poetic justice. Is that vengeful? Well, yes. In other circumstances, I would find it to be too severe. But bombing two huge buildings full of innocent people for religious reasons seems a bit vengeful too. Someone who has no respect for human life or differences really doesn’t deserve too much respect in return either.

Becky