Opinion | Is Public Execution Really the American Way?
- Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter, faces a firing squad—a method so retro it makes the guillotine look like a Tesla.
- Editorialists wring hands over 'martyrdom,' while the Pentagon quietly checks if bullets are more cost-effective than lethal injection.
- Marco Rubio's Western civ lecture gets a grim punchline: we're debating the choreography of killing, not the killing itself.
- Death penalty fans now get two flavors: 'humane' and 'Heggler Special'—both end with a corpse and a press release.
- The real irony? The state's own logic for execution is indistinguishable from a terrorist's logic for martyrdom.
Brief Summary
The Wall Street Journal's letters page turns into a blood-splattered debate over whether Nidal Hasan should face a firing squad, as if the method of his exit is the moral crux of the matter. While Rubio polishes his rhetoric on Western virtue, the Pentagon's bright idea is to add a volley of rifle fire to the nation's execution menu—because nothing says 'civilized' like outsourcing your killing to a squad with synchronized triggers. The editorial board's worry that a firing squad might make Hasan a martyr is almost adorable, as if a lethal injection makes dying with 'fairness' less theatrical. Meanwhile, taxpayers are treated to the spectacle of a murderer getting a final scene straight out of *Cold Mountain*, complete with a blindfold and a chaplain standing by. At its core, this is America's favorite pastime: arguing over the flavor of state-sanctioned death while pretending the main course isn't already on the table.
Why This Matters
This story matters because it exposes the comfortable fiction that Americans can keep their moral purity while the state customizes its killing methods. Whether it's a needle or a firing squad, the outcome is the same, but the debate lets people feel principled about process rather than confronted with the reality of the death penalty itself. You should care because this isn't a sidebar about one convicted murderer—it's a test of whether the public will applaud any theatrical retribution as long as it's wrapped in flag and constitutional archery. If you're broadly against execution, this is a reminder that the system is always finding new ways to normalize the grotesque. If you're for it, ask yourself: are you really okay with making the last man to face a firing squad the poster child for 'American justice'? Either way, this story forces you to admit the question isn't 'how'—it's 'why do we keep asking?'