THE DAMNED HUMAN RACE: Mosquito Hunters

Now more than ever, they must rely on the skills they have learnt from a lifetime's hunting.
(tense music, as they worm their way forward)
Hank gauges the wind.
(shot of Hank doing complicated wind gauging biz.)
Roy examines the mosquito's spoor.
(shot of Roy examining the ground intently)
Then ...
(Roy fires a bazooka. Hank fires off a machine gun; a series of almighty explosions in the small patch of field; the gunfire stops and the smoke begins to clear)
It's a success. The mosquito now is dead.
(Hank and Roy approach the scorched and blackened patch in the field)
But Roy must make sure.
(Roy points machine gun at head of mosquito and fires off another few rounds)

Monty Python's Flying Circus, Episode Twenty-One
Written by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones & Michael Palin

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I'm having a real problem with the trial that's currently going on in federal court to decide whether to put Zacarias Moussaoui to death. There's a certain element of killing-mice-with-bazookas going on that makes me kind of uncomfortable.

Moussaoui is, of course, one of the many schmucks who Osama bin Laden shipped over to American to learn how to fly airplanes and crash them into American landmarks. Moussaoui, unlike not nearly enough of his colleagues, got arrested in August 2001, and wasn't on hand to wreak havoc on the world a month later. Nevertheless, the federal government has charged him with being part of the September 11 plot, and is seeking the death penalty. A jury has already determined that he's eligible, and now they're debating whether to give it to him.

It's possible, though, that Moussaoui would have had nothing to do with the events of that day. He's changed his story so many times, there's no clear sense of what the truth is. Maybe he was the so-called 20th hijacker, the man who would have been onboard the flight that crashed into a Pennsylvania field. Maybe he was going to take over a later flight, in cahoots with the captured terrorist Richard Reid. Maybe he's a lunatic who would never have been picked for a mission but wants to exaggerate his importance. No one really knows, except Moussaoui, and he's given to screaming things in court like "Next time we will destroy them all!" So other than demonstrating his eligibility for the part of a villain in a Chuck Norris movie, we don't really know what he was capable of.

Prosecutors have adopted an interesting strategy to deal with this uncertainty: they don't care. Here's the charge upon which the United States has marshalled all its resources to end the life of Zacarias Moussaoui: he lied to the FBI about the upcoming hijackings, thereby ensuring that they could not be stopped. Hence, he is directly responsible for the events of September 11, and must die.

I've watched enough Law & Order to know that having any connection to a murder can get you charged with murder. So the link between this man and this mayhem is not as tenuous as it sounds. But are we really saying that the key to stopping September 11 was in the hands of Zacarias Moussaoui? Honestly? That sure makes our government look stupid, then. At least three FBI agents -- Coleen Rowley, Greg Jones, and Harry Samit -- are on record as having repeatedly requested permission to follow up on Moussaoui's connections. They were all turned down. Clearly, alarm bells were sounding, but the higher-ups in the FBI declined to listen. The idea that, if Moussaoui had only said something, three thousand lives would not have been lost is disingenuous at best. Moussaoui was definitely saying something. Not everyone heard.

But we'll set that aside for the moment. After all, a jury has already determined that his actions (or possibly inactions) have earned him a trip to the gallows. Now we're just trying to decide if this particular crime is worthy of the ultimate punishment. Which is plainly ludicrous. As much as any event in my lifetime, the terrorist attacks of September 11 have earned the execution of anyone and everyone responsible. We executed Timothy McVeigh; the horrors of September 11 are unquestionably more heinous.

But...and I say this will all the righteous anger I can summon...we're gonna execute this guy? We're actually going to end the life of a human being because he's a damn liar? Seriously?

Most of the people we really want to kill as bloody revenge for September 11 are already dead. They gave their lives to commit their crime, as well as for the promise of 70 virgins or some such nonsense. The other guy we'd like to get our hands on is the mastermind, and he's managed to elude us for nearly five years, primarily through the clever strategy of not going anywhere near Iraq. So we're throwing everything we've got at this one guy. This idiot. This non-entity. Zacarias Moussaoui must die. And why? As best as I can tell, he must die because he's handy. Someone's gotta pay, and he volunteered. Lucky break for us.

The first part of the word "justice" is the word "just", and the prosecution of this case strikes me as anything but. There's something to be said for punishment meeting the crime, and while Zacarias Moussaoui might like very much to be responsible for September 11, the fact is that he's not. And no matter how many times we play back the awful events of that day, it doesn't get him any closer to being the guy who needs to pay. It's inconvenient, but that's the way it is.

America has long prided itself on being a land of fairness and justice. Having been attacked, we're not going to just turn the other cheek. We want to administer that justice, and do it in a far manner. But in licking our wounds, I fear we've begun to lose sight of those ideals. Now we're using justice as a bludgeon. The most powerful country on earth, bringing the weight of the country down on one very little man.

Like using a bazooka to kill a mosquito.