SADDAM & THE DEATH PENALTY Is it possible to oppose the death penalty generally, but support it for Saddam? (or Osama, for that matter?) I actually think it is, for reasons mostly of prudence rather than of principle. Call it the Napoleon Principle: lifetime imprisonment for former dictators (or, I suppose, global terrorist ringleaders) is all well and good, but only insofar as you're actually imprisoning them for life. If Saddam is imprisoned for life, there's still the remote possibility that he can escape, and return to power. Which would be bad. On a scale that the escape of an ordinary murderer is not.

Steven Pollard takes a different view. Read, and see what you think.