I mean, this question is not just about normal criminals.
Think like very bad crimes. Like serial killers, rapists, child rapists, terrorists, corrupt officials, terrible leaders, cruel dictators, generals that ignore laws of war, or like people has bad as Hitler. Which of these people do you think deserve a respectful burial, if any.
Is there a level of evilness that you think should not be allowed to have a proper buriel or have their corpses mutilated. Or should everyone deserve a respectful burial regardless of crimes.
I personally don’t even know how to answer this question myself. Like the funeral isn’t even for the dead. Its for the living. So to me, the question seems like, should the relatives of a bad person be allowed to see the corpse treated respectfully. I personally don’t have an answer to this question.
Odd thing to fixate on, but yes. We ought to spend our energy on the terrible people still alive. Who cares what they do to the demon husks once they can’t hurt anyone anymore? Bury it with flowers and fireworks for all I care. Let’s focus on the suffering of the living.
The thing is, other shitty people care. They see how we treat dead shitty people and, because humans are irrational, see it as a reward for their behaviour in life. That’s also why I’m against the notion of not speaking ill of the dead - no, people need to realise that they won’t be respected when they’re dead if they were shitty.
I know it doesn’t matter, rationally. But humans are weird and care about what people will think when they’re gone.
Oh I have random throughts all the time. I read an article about the US sending SEALs to kill a designated terrorist leader and they gave him a burial according to his culture, so I just though that was very interesting. Like I expected military people to just burn or mutilate the body.
the story to fixate upon there is how the cia located bin laden in the first place – by having agents pose as international aid workers dispensing the polio vaccine in pakistan.
this one act has led to a distrust in aid workers in that country and the flourishing of polio. countless innocent lives ruined, but i’m sure uncle sam considers those as adequate compensation against killing one man who had sequestered hinself away with his goats and his porn.
we should care less about how that one man was buried then and more about how the polio-ridden corpses of children are treated today.
I hope my questions don’t come across as me dismissing or distrusting what you are saying, but this is the first I’ve heard about this information and I find it interesting.
When you say that it caused a distrust in aid workers, where did this distrust come from, and where did it end up? To rephrase, from my understanding, bin Laden wasn’t exactly a good guy locally either, so if civilians found out that he was taken out with the help of undercover aid workers, would that not strengthen the trust that the aid workers were there to help? The only people that should be wary after finding this out would be his supporters, no?
Unless the fear is more of an outside force interfering with your government, good or bad, which is more understandable, especially in a time and place where information wasn’t as readily available. I’m sure it’s obvious, but I’m a US citizen, and though I absolutely detest the man and his following, I’d be pretty fucking concerned if China had Trump popped.
these sources cover the story pretty well:
NPR
The Lancet
I, for one, am kind of relieved that military personnel have respect for their adversaries.
Well believe it or not most people in the military are human beings, not bloodthirsty monsters that burn and mutilate bodies. Osama’s burial was done the way it was for pretty good reasons. Imagine the uproar and additional violence that would have happened if it came out that his body was treated like you say. It would have cost even more lives.