Charles Taylor is now in the hands of the War Crimes Tribunal; it's a pity it had to take so long for Obasanjo to hand him over. What bothers me is that there is simply no punishment commensurate with his crime. Death itself seems insufficient given the scale of his depredations on the peoples of Liberia and Sierra Leone. The hundreds of thousands of people killed, mutilated or displaced deserve justice, but there is no punishment that fits the enormity of Taylor's crimes. There is no pain that he could suffer that is in any way commensurate with the immense suffering the bastard caused. Faced with such crimes, there is no punishment that seems just or proper that could be inflicted by anyone with a claim to being human. Evil may be banal, but it can also be overwhelming. Humanity has rights which must be defended against such as Taylor, and such people need to know that what they visit will be visited on them. Except, of course, that it is simply not possible to do so.
It is not surprising to find that Taylor is a good Christian, and Pat Robertson has spoken out on his behalf. Robertson's statement is, indeed, a wonderful statement of Christian hypocrisy:
So we're undermining a Christian, Baptist president to bring in Muslim rebels to take over the country. And how dare the president of the United States say to the duly elected president of another country, 'You've got to step down.'
No comments:
Post a Comment