AC Grayling: These executions have set us back to medieval ways

[The Northerner]

If inquiry shows that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim were summarily executed last Thursday, theirs will be the latest in a series of high-profile killings this year, beginning with Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and continuing with Anwar al-Awlaki and his bomb-making colleague Ibrahim al-Asiri in Yemen.

No one can doubt that the quick dispatch of these men was convenient. If Bin Laden had been taken to Guantanamo or The Hague and put on trial, his status would have risen again, and many more deaths might have occurred in reaction to his humiliation at the hands of America. Killing him and quickly disposing of his remains at sea had a strong, utilitarian, short-term justification.

But for the long-term, it is a very bad thing that he was assassinated rather than put on trial. The same applies to Awlaki, and it applies also, this time in the interests of Libya's future social health, to Gaddafi. The idea of the rule of law, of its due process, of the civil liberties accorded even to those we know are guilty of vile and violent deeds – indeed, the whole project of civilising the world and substituting peace and law for violence and revenge – is jeopardised by using murder rather than law to deal with such criminals.

When leading nations such as the United States act like Mexican drug gangsters, they harm themselves and set a terrible example to the world. When a nation freeing itself from tyranny uses a tyrant's methods, it gives itself a steeper hill to climb towards becoming a just and stable society.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ac-grayling-these-executions-have-set-us-back-to-medieval-ways-2374669.html

[Abin Sur]

1. "Medieval"? This is the way humans have acted for over 99% of our history.

[brooklynite]

2. I agree it was bad that he was assasinated--what does it have to do with us?

We didn't capture him; we didn't shoot him. We played a minimal role in helping the Libyan people rebel against a despot. You can argue the merits of that role, but unless you're going to join the isolationist wing of the Republican Party, there's never giong to be a clear policy on which foreign issues to get involved in, and which not.

[EFerrari]

4. We can certainly discourage our top diplomat from going to foreign countries

and calling for assassinations as Hillary did in Tripoli. That would be a good start.

[Solly Mack]

3. and torture didn't already? ("set us back")

It hasn't been a banner decade for due process, the rule of law, civil liberties or human rights.

I feel confident in saying the US (and other governments) will absorb the blow well, however. Hypocrisy, especially self-righteous hypocrisy, makes for a soft landing.