71 Pristine Virgins

Oh death penalty. How we judge thee, discuss thee and flounder on thee. To kill or not to kill. This is the question. And most recently, this has become the question concerning Zacarias Moussaoui. Should this man, who publicly avows his dedication to the cause of Al Qaeda and fervently wishes that he could have followed through on his plan to crash a hijacked plan full of innocent civilians into more innocent civilians, be put to death? Currently his defense is attempting to get the option of the death penalty thrown out due to mental incompetence that stems from paranoid schizophrenia. Ok. We've seen this argument before. But this man attacked US on OUR soil. He should rightfully die. He has taken or plotted to take the right to life of innocent people and therefore forfeited his right to live.

But lets think more closely about this. Is death the correct punishment for a man such as Moussaoui? A Muslim suicide bomber intent on destroying the fabric of Western society? A man who truly believes that upon his death he will be welcomed into Paradise by a multitude of virgins and revel in the blessings of Allah for eternity? It seems to me that we would only be helping Moussaoui to complete his mission. I say we let him rot in jail. I don't think his sanity is at question. It's pretty clear that anyone who would consider performing such an atrocious act is insane. But medically crazy or not, instead of helping him on his way to paradise, lets make sure he experiences a little earthbound hell first.