The Messenger Does the Killing

The circumstances of Moammar Gadhafi's killing are very disturbing on a number of levels. If there is any "message" here to other tyrants, it will certainly be confused with the messenger. Killing begets killing. Executions beget executions. How likely has it now become that other autocrats will "trust the system" if they cooperate and step down? The iron fist will only be clenched harder, and the rule of law will have no place in any of this. How probable is it that there will be no more summary executions in Libya? The perpetrators will call it justice, but it has another less noble name: homicide. To be continued. . . .

Gadhafi Gets the Death Penalty on the Spot

Moammar Gadhafi's summary execution cannot be a good thing in the eyes of those who promote and value the rule of law. Time will tell, but I believe it was not prudent for our President to be praising the Libyan revolution and the NTC in the immediate aftermath of this brutal killing. Whatever precedent it sets cannot possibly bode well for the future. Our nation and its leadership need to rise above reveling in the worst manifestations of human misbehavior.