Justice Comes to Iraq

In principle, people choose not to commit crimes when the risks exceed the potential rewards.

How then, can you deter terrorism when the terrorist embraces death, even to the point of considering it a fitting and honorable conclusion to an honorable action.

Let’s complicate the issue. Everyone knows that today’s terrorism is nearly always Islamic in origin and roots. We also understand that while Islamic terrorists occasionally target Westerners, their victims are almost exclusively their fellow Muslims,

It is also clear that the reputation of Islam in the world has suffered grievously from the behavior of terrorists who declare that they are acting in the name of Islam.

In the best of worlds law-abiding members of the Muslim community would simply step up and put an end to the terrorism that us compromising their own honor and dignity in the world.

The vast majority of Muslims are honorable and law-abiding. It would appear that they have been so completely terrorized by al Qaeda and its fellow-travellers that they have been beaten into inaction.

Some Muslims have asked, reasonably: how do you figure deter people who clearly and simply want to die? Isn’t capital punishment the ultimate price?

It is not an easy problem, and the solution is not likely to be very pretty.

Take the example of what has been happening throughout Iraq since the tide turned against the terrorists and insurgents.

It is not pretty. The New York Times reported this yesterday: “Tribal leaders say that scores of family members of insurgents have been attacked and killed in recent years as Iraqis turned against Al Qaeda and other militant groups. Insurgents’ families have been driven from their homes and villages, accused of being complicit in their loved ones’ crimes or simply guilty by association.”

Or try this: “There is little sympathy for families associated with the foreign and homegrown Qaeda fighters who slaughtered thousands of Iraqis and tilted the country toward chaos. The militants’ wives and widows are pariahs. Their young children are not legally recognized by Iraq’s government.”

You might think that this extremely rough justice can only pertain in a lawless nation, where the judicial system is barely functional.

Yet, there is no such thing, to my knowledge, as a legal system that metes out punishment to the innocent wives and children of criminals, even war criminals.

Some of this involves shaming and shunning, but some of it also involves summary execution.

As we should know, shaming as punishment, is not limited to the individual. If you are related to Bernard Madoff, his disgrace will be visited on you and yours. That was why his son hung himself in his Soho loft.

In a better world we would say that economic growth and development is the cure for terrorism. In our world, we still have a very serious problem with terrorism. Muslims are, in some ways, the ultimate victims of these activities.

The question I have been mulling over is twofold: do you have anotherway to disincentivize terrorist actions? If revenge merely involved shunning and ostracizing the families of terrorists, without the summary executions, would you consider it an acceptable deterrent? If there is no other way, could you approve the kinds of actions that are taking place in Iraq today?