Hegseth announced last week that the US public would be able to see the execution of Nidal Hasan, which is set for 3 December at Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan, a former army major and psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded 32 at Fort Hood in 2009. A military court sentenced him to death in August 2013.
“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said. “It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers – as it should be.”
The de facto leader of Hegseth’s theocratic Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), Douglas Wilson, welcomed the announcement.
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- 13 hours
‘More fool me! Here I was thinking nothing that America’s Trump administration could do or say, no matter how politically and morally bankrupt, no matter how venal or violent, was capable of shocking me any longer. Then I woke to today’s news that one of the Trump cabinet’s bigger boofheads – the uber Christian nationalist, crusader-fantasist and “secretary of war” Pete Hegseth had announced that America would have a public firing squad execution of murderer Nidal Hasan. Reckless global militarisation including a threat at the UN to annihilate Iran, a litany of sexual misconduct allegations against the commander in chief, claims of blatant presidential corruption … they have all ceased to surprise and shock us, so inured has the world become to Donald Trump’s monstrous narcissism and maladministration. But now we have execution TV. Tune in to the livestream on Thursday 3 December to watch a military firing squad shoot the life out of Hasan, the former army psychiatrist who killed 13 people at a US army base in 2009.State-sanctioned killing as entertainment! Yes, the world’s supposedly greatest (or formerly greatest) democracy has arrived at an horrific new moral nadir. The fact that America remains Australia and the west’s most relied-upon and trusted ally despite the global wrecking ball the second Trump administration has proved to be, was already cause for deep concern. But being so closely allied to a country that now wants to turn the execution of a human being – no matter what their crimes – into a live entertainment event, promises to redefine depravity. Given that American states continue to execute so many convicted criminals, where might the United States ultimately draw the line? No doubt the ilk of Hegseth in American society – and elsewhere – will count down the days until they can tune in to the live coverage of Hasan’s execution in droves. Might the audience cry out for more – for livestream cameras in the death chambers across the land of the free? How would this populist administration respond? If you think it is a fanciful question, consider how far American governance and presidential values have slid in the moral murk in the past two years alone. Meanwhile, it is hard to contemplate a more audacious appeal to American society’s darker angels than this looming entertainment event. But there we are. We have arrived. Pass the popcorn, Don, and Pete! It would be heartening today to hear political leaders the world over condemn Hegseth and Trump’s planned introduction of Ghoul TV. But let us please start in Australia, where federal governments have for a long-time opposed capital punishment – let alone turning it into a public spectacle. Will the prime minister and his senior ministers stand up and condemn without qualification this depraved plan for America to livestream an execution? What about the leaders of other political parties here, some of whom have, after all, supported capital punishment? We are waiting. Meanwhile, how much further into the moral quagmire must America wallow before Australia rethinks its craven military dependence on Washington – not least via the reckless shackling of our strategic reliance to the US via the $368bn (and counting) Aukus submarine deal? Announcing America’s decision to turn killing into a form of entertainment, Hegseth said: “It was a radical Islamist attack in uniform inside the ranks, and so he’s going to get a firing squad of soldiers, as it should be, and we’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public, because people need to understand there’s serious consequences for these types of things.” America’s defence department later confirmed the execution would be livestreamed. This represents a significant lurch in the US from civilisation towards savagery. You cannot choose your family. But you can choose your friends and allies. And you can also tell them firmly when they have careened off the ethical rails. Actions speak louder than words. And this planned livestreamed execution says it all about what is happening in America today, opening the window ever wider on the Trump administration’s moral vacuity and its paucity of human decency.’
• Paul Daley is a Guardian Australia columnist 
1 dayThe Christian nationalists will kill or imprison half the USA if we let them.
- 2 days
It’s just like he said: “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, hold a public execution for him.”
Christians certainly do. They put his method of execution on all their jewellery and art and stuff. Imagine if he’d been hanged or guillotined or shot? Imagine a bunch of Christians wandering around with gun pins and badges. People might get the impression they’re pro-violence or something. Wouldn’t that be crazy?
- 1 day
I raised my kid without religion, and the first time he saw the image of a bloody man dying on a piece of wood with nails in his hands, was at school in Texas. He came home and cried and described it, he was like 7. I told the school and even (irrationally) contacted the website that displayed the image to my kid. They were like, “yah it’s graphic and violent and bloody, but it’s fine.”
Its pretty nuts really.
Conservatives are inherently blood-thirsty. They are violent by nature and celebrate the suffering of others. This is why every genocide in human history has been led exclusively by conservatives.
Conservatism is pure evil. Never trust a conservative. And never, ever leave a conservative alone with a child.
- 2 days
Is is why they need “thou shalt not kill” written on the walls in schools?
Just for the record it’s “murder”, not “kill”.
Murder is the unjustified killing of another, and to be clear, their god justified bashing babies against rocks over an imagined slight that didn’t happen hundreds of years prior,
- 2 days
Also their god thought an appropriate response to children making fun of a bald guy was sending bears to maul them.
- 2 days
Interesting.
I’d always considered that the translation that resulted in the virgin (chaste) Mary rather than virgin (unwed) was dubious; but not extended that to murder/death/kill for that commandment.
Bullshit is as bullshit does as it momma used to say
I mean, I don’t know of any translation that puts it as “you shall not kill”… particularly since the law of Moses also makes it very clear that one should most certainly kill for all sorts of things.
I mean, off the top of my head…
- murder
- men who rape another’s wife or betrothed
- women who are raped inside the town, if no one hears her call out. (The rapist is also offed,)
- women who willingly have sex with another man
- gay men.
- witches
- blasphemers and idolaters
- women who didn’t bleed on their wedding night.
- intentionally working on the sabbath
- being an unruly teenager (talking back to your parents or insulting them, disobedience.)
- false prophecy.
And then there’s all the numerous times god commanded genocides.
That was just god being a dick, rather than being an actual legal code.
Which means he was in one of his better moods. I mean, really. Supposedly, he once offed most the planet just because some angels (or possibly his children…) came down and started boinking some girls.
- 23 hours
Part of the argument is that all of God’s words are law, which makes sense. If a perfect omnipotent omniscient being tells you anything: it’s law.
If He says not to look back (ignoring the obvious metaphor) then doing so invites Divine retribution.
Urgh, now I feel like Micheal Bay responding to every Goof in his movies on IMBD.
- 2 days
For what it’s worth, the orange man put out a Truth or whatever today that says the live stream is off, but the firing squad is going ahead.
The polling was like 80% against the live stream.
Yeah. That actually boosted my faith in humanity somewhat, for the first time in years.
- 2 days
The average person will never hear about this and go on not thinking about “politics”
