The Home of the Brave

I have found this very uplifting - Zacarias Moussaoui is given life in prison rather than a needle in the arm.

Now, I though that Moussaoui was going to get what he wanted - I thought he was going to be made a martyr. True, he may have known about 9/11, but he is not himself a murderer. He allowed others to die, but he did not hi-jack the planes or kill the victims of September 11th, 2001. He should be silenced in prison for the rest of his life, but he was not a killer and therefore should not die what for what he said.

However I had no doubts that he would be given the death penalty. I thought that the ongoing, and to some extent perfectly understandable, rage after 9/11 meant anyone on trial for it, regardless of exactly what part they played, would die as part of the same bloodlust that has given us the War on Iraq and the hostility towards Iran. I thought Moussaoui would be another example of America lashing out with lethal force at anyone possibly connected with Islamic fundamentalism and the attacks of 2001.

Instead, the jury reacted in the way it should do. It reviewed the evidence, and decided that Moussaoui was a fantasist who was probably too erratic to be considered by Al Qaeda for the attacks on New York, Washington and United 93. He deserves to be punished for his part in 9/11, but the actions of the jury that Moussaoui is not as culpable as Atta et al.

The jury showed that they were willing to let emotion - and the desire to avenge 9/11 with an execution - be balanced with the need to defend democracy and justice. So after years of pessimism caused by the Iraq invasion and the talk of the Axis of Evil, perhaps the world can feel more optimistic about what the US will do next. If the US as a whole follows the example of the jury in Moussaoui trial, then we could see the War on Terror becoming less about blindly lashing out at the Middle East, and more about combatting those responsible for 9/11 and, more importantly, those plotting future attacks.