Moussaoui: Justice vs. Revenge

---by Micheal

Zacarias Moussaoui got life in prison instead of death. Predictably, some people are satisfied and others are not. One man, whose wife died in the twin towers was angry. "I wanted revenge," he said. "Justice was not served," he added later.

While I can certainly understand his feelings, the reality of what he said is troubling. Revenge equals justice?

The prosecution, and the popular media, were painting Moussaoui as a goat -- the only goat US authorities had in custody -- upon which all the sins of 9/11 could be placed. He was played up as an evil, sadistic jihadist for which the 3,000 deaths could be blamed. Death for death.

But, our laws and court system were built upon fairness and getting at the truth. There is supposed to be a balance of punishment to the crime. We don't cut off hands for petty theft. In Singapore, the punishment for overstaying your visa or rape is caning.

While wanting death for death is a very human feeling, is it really the direction we want to go? Look at the culture of death in Iraq. If your political views upset someone, they kill you. If you belong to the "wrong" ethnic group or sect you can be kidnapped and executed, or just blown to bits on the street, as revenge for some deaths in the other ethnicity or sect, which might have occurred before you were even born.

This mind-set, this eagerness to dish up death in revenge for wrongs, is what will destroy the nation of Iraq. In that Iraqi culture, revenge equals justice. Do we really want to adopt that system?

From what I'd seen and read of the trial, Moussaoui was a two-bit nobody who only fancied himself to be a big-time terrorist. He wanted to be infamous. In reality, he is nothing. At least in a "martyr's" death, he could be somebody. The jury denied him his desire. The facts didn't bear out his claims.

Justice was served. An unstable idiot who says he wants to kill people is kept off the streets. Killing him might have made some people feel better, but justice in America is not supposed to be driven by our feelings.