Mick's ire at the US bashing that goes on here is understandable, but I believe taking insults against your country personally is a bit of a mistake. As what some would call 'a Brit' (althought I don't think of myself this way) I could take deep offence at some of the posts on the 'cat who blame every person who resides on our island for the sins of their fathers, but as the posters don't actually know me or my opinions what's the point? We often have far more beliefs in common that could at first be supposed.

But Mick's belligerence underlies what I believe is a major fault with many western societies, but is more evident in the domestic and foreign policy of the US than most, and the death penalty is a symptom of this fault.

This is the ingrained belief that violence (state and personally invoked) is an answer to so many problems. This acceptance of violence in the USA precludes it (in the eyes of much of the world) of having any moral integrity, and thus makes many people across the world hate the US. You only have to look at the threads about gun control to see how ingrained the belief in violence as a lifetyle choice is, and this is reflected in the USA's use of the death penalty which is unique in the western world for it's use of judical murder as a punishment.

Mick rightly comments on the actions of the British Empire in the colonial nations, but the parallel must be disturbing to modern residents of the US. Many Britons who were never involved in any of these actions because they were not born or were too young are still regarded as the enemy by the ancestors of the people who were oppressed by previous generations. If US citizens want their unborn children to be posting to Mudcat in future years without Abu Grahib, Guantanamo and Iraq to be constantly trawled up as evidence of their collective guilt then they really need to address their culture of violence now, before it's too late.

There's no better place to start than by getting rid of the death penalty.

stigWeard