Beheading is Saudi Punishment. Electrocution and Injections are Ours!

[KoKo]

Blitzer does a report about "Beheading." He talks to a Saudi "human rights supporter (non Chalabi) who says this is the Saudi form of Justice. Says 50 Saudi's have been executed by "beheading" for drugs, and other crimes in Saudi Arabia in the last year? How does this compare with our criminal justice? We execute less, I think, but it's the basic premise of execution for crime according to one's own criminal laws.

Then, I'm thinking: "When did Westerners give up the "Sword and Guillotine?" Why is it "barbaric" for Saudi's and others to use "Beheading" as their form of Justice for whom THEY view as criminals as opposed to what we in the West have done...and what we Americans are doing today?

I'm a big reader of the Tudor Period in English History. Beheading was the norm in those days. Ann Boleyn requested a French Swordsman to lop off her head because they were known for having sharp blades and swift hands to do the chop. Even then they wanted their deaths to be "swift and painless."

How can we compare with the American system where we've evolved from Hanging..hoping your neck will break and if it doesn't you die a slow agonizing death, to Electrocution where you die from a series of shocks to your system where you "spasm" to death slowly or the latest which is an "injection" where some death row folks have said.."it's too slow" and subject to victim not reacting soon enough to the medication used."

Beheading by a SWIFT SWORD? It goes back into our Western Civilization Roots. Why are so many surprised and angered by this?

Remember Marie Antoinette? This isn't new.

[eaprez]

1. Execute Less?

Hell they're executing em as regularly as they do in Texas here in Ohio now. ONE is too many.

[KoKo]

2. Does "Beheading turn everyone on DU off? Please..give me a break

why can't we understand other cultures when we claim to be Liberals?

Are we fake "Liberals?" :shrug: ignoring our own history?

[gottaB]

3. it does gets heated

you might be interested in these posts:

Perspectives: The History of Beheading

got a little heated

and this story from Christian Science Monitor, I posted it this morning, but it sank, Brutal Terror Tactics: How Nations Respond.... It's quite balanced, as you might expect.

[KoKo]

4. Kick for Capital Punishment Folks.........n/t

:kick:

[mitchum]

5. How is "Old Sleepy" (lethal injection) barbaric?

You can have a valid and principled argument against capital punishment, but injection is hardly a barbaric method.
Remember: I said "method"

[Cleita]

6. I can't see why you think this is the same thing.

Sawing some guys head off with a short sword is a little gross and inhumane to me. The fella who invented the guillotine did so because he thought it would be more humane than the big axe on a block, the preferred method of execution back then.

Of course this goes back historically to our headhunting ancestry. Taking the head of an enemy in battle was proof that you were a warrior. The Egyptians used to cut off hands for the same reason.

So when is the real barbarian going to stand up? I nominate our President in residence, George W. Bush.