OK, is there peace on Earth now?

Saddam Hussein is dead. It happened a few minutes ago in a far away city before the dawn had broken. Now that he is dead, has anything changed? The answer is no. Not a single thing has changed. Innocents are still dying, civillians are still displaced and bombs continue to explode.

The one thing that has changed is that one man, guilty, is now dead. And another opportunity is lost. We talked about the death penalty long ago in this blog, and one of the most interesting posts on the subject was by Marcus. Harkening back to that post, I believe that we missed the opportunity to do something truly great that would stand out in the annals of history. We missed the chance to show mercy. We missed the chance to return life when it was to be taken. Now we have Saddam Hussein. He moves closer to his eternal reward, whatever that may be as his body moves closer to room temprature.

Part of the problem is that we equate law and justice, a mistake we should never make. Another piece of this is that we are fighting a war based off of the ego, of one man. Does killing this murderer bring us closer to achieving the goal? I doubt it. In fact I believe it puts us back even further. So why do it? Is it so that someone can feel closure? I certainly don't, and I doubt that anyone else does either.

Will there be equity in "Justice"? Will our leaders have to account for their role in this war? I doubt that they will. We lack both equity and justice. We are trying to protect a freedom that we have already given away and now we are taking lives to fill the void.

The government, rightly or wrongly, has the power to take life. That doesn't mean that it has the right. The more lives that are taken, the more people that are imprisoned and the more laws that are passed, the more I believe that government is just another word for terrorism.

So, Saddam Hussein is dead. Is there peace on Earth now?