Life is better for America, worse for Moussaoui

Zacarias Moussaoui's life sentence was the right thing to do. In fact, it goes a long way in restoring my faith in my fellow Americans. The jurors who had to sit in the same courtroom with that shithead for that long deserved a lot more revenge than they got from that verdict, but that just shows that 12 jurors who were "too stupid to get out of jury duty" are smarter, and more sincere in their duty, than the vocal minority lets on. Of course, when it comes to revenge, there's not enough on this earth for those who lost family or friend in the 9/11 attacks, but a jury's job, our justice system's job shouldn't have anything to do with revenge. And, contrary to what he would now like the world to think, I doubt that Moussaoui had all that much to do with 9/11. Thanks to the insight on his thoughts that he's offered us throughout his trial, I doubt that any terrorist organization worth their salt would trust him with much more that sticking a firecracker in an American Bullfrog's ass.

Aside from my liberal and pro-life belief that killing someone because they killed someone is wrong, or that any irreversible punishment to that extent smacks of more hubris than humans should possess, there are a number of practical reasons why this sentence is better (for us) than death... the primary one for me is that it's worse for Moussaoui.

This wimp thought he would die a martyr even though he didn't take the initiative to even risk, let alone take his own life. Getting sentenced to death is not the way of the martyrs Moussaoui's delusions led him to compare himself to. The martyrs he looks up to kill themselves... and others in the process. Moussaoui didn't have the courage or the strength of conviction to do that. Instead, he jumped on the vilest of bandwagons in order to catch his own 15 minutes. This verdict cuts him off at 13 and he won't ever get the remaining two. He'll probably die in prison before he unsuccessfully tries to gain more attention during his next appeal hearing. Let those our justice system has condemned do that dirty work, not us.

Martyrdom would have earned Moussaoui the famed 72 virgins according to some stretched interpretations of the Koran, or, more likely, according to one of the 2,000+ sayings of the hadith. But, those who are inclined to take such a promise so literally (radical fundamentalist "Muslims") are also probably inclined to believe that women's souls cannot enter heaven. So are these virgins young boys? Is that what Moussaoui was deprived of? Ok, so I digressed a little to say that... either way, this verdict puts the brakes on the martyrdom issue.

Still another reason the verdict is a great decision is because it tells the rest of the world what I've always known about America: once we're calmed down and back in our game, we will do the right thing. In spite of overwhelming individual desire (mine included) to see the perpetrators of the attacks die slow, horrible deaths, that jury, on behalf of the nation, showed the world that we know the difference between justice and revenge. Having done so, the jury dealt a serious blow to the momentum of anti-American sentiment. Our nation has wielded its power in ways that feed that sentiment, no doubt, but here's a sign that our people don't necessarily condone that. We're good people, by and large and those twelve of us proved it to the world on a high-visibility stage.

And the last reason I'll offer up (feel free to toss more in as comments) is the revenge that this verdict actually does allow. As the judge who presided over the sentencing said, "it's quite clear who won and who lost." This slimeball, who claims to hate America, will spend the rest of his life here, surrounded by Americans with even less respect for him than the jurors who spared his life even as they probably didn't think it was worth much. He loses. Game over. Sure, there's talk of moving him to a French prison for some strange reason. So be it. They can have him. He can rot there just as easily. Why not be imprisoned by a country who refused to join us in the war? That would add irony to the situation from both directions. Doesn't matter. With that much time on his hands, even a dumbass like Moussaoui may eventually figure out that there is no place for him in any version of heaven unless he repents. Based on his comments at sentencing, I'm not holding my breath for that. The only thing I'll be waiting to hear is whether or not he counts as one of those virgins in his cellmate's interpretation.