A Note on Moral Eqivalency

Last night at the Ashcroft event, there were a number of folks protesting against the death penalty in the United States, and lately the topic has risen to the top of the public debate. Before 2005 ends, this country will have reached the media-imposed benchmark of 1,000 executions since the Supreme Court allowed the resumption of the death penalty with the death by firing squad of murderer Gary Gilmore in 1977.

Amnesty International, the United Nations, our fair weather friends across the Atlantic, and our wannabe expats here at home lament that the U.S. practices the death penalty. How barbaric, how byzantine, how backwards and violent we are for doing this. Yet, how much condemnation has been spread on other nations that still impose the death penalty? Take Iran for just one example. 100 people have been executed in Iran since Mahmoud Admadinejad became president on June 24th of this year.

So let's do some math here real briefly. In the U.S., 1,000 executions in 28 years averages out to about 35 executions per year. In Iran, criminals (as defined by the Islamic regime, mind you) have been dispatched at the rate of about 16 a month from Summer to Christmas. At the current rate of executions in Iran, they will surpass our record in 5 years. Now there's a country on the move for ya. Too bad the international left is spending all its time focusing on the supposed shortcomings of the United States. They're missing where the real action is.