On Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Death Penalty, and Hypocrisy
The newspaper has announced today that the government will begin its search for jurors to try Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, charged with thirty different federal charges based on planting bombs in the April 13 Boston Marathon Bombing which killed three people and injured more than two hundred and sixty. He will stand trial and face the federal death penalty if convicted.
Here in Boston, the sentiment against Dzhokhar and his brother has been unsurprisingly vitriolic. Four people dead, hundreds injured. Although originally it seemed there might be some case that Dzhokhar’s brother, Tamerlan, had manipulated or coerced Dzhokhar into joining into this scheme with him, it’s no longer relevant. Tamerlan is dead, and Dzhokhar faces the death penalty for his involvement alone.
Of course, that would be the only possible excuse for Dzhokhar that could have helped him. He maliciously and intently planned death and suffering for others and now he faces the death penalty. Short of compelling evidence that he was made to go along with this plan, why he hatched this plan in the first place does not matter. It does not assuage his guilt.
That’s how we usually approach these things, as a country. If you plan for the suffering and death of others on your own free will, you are culpable. School shootings work the same way - after the fact, everyone will talk about it for a while: people with mental illness shouldn’t have access to weapons, or that teachers should all carry guns, or whatever the relevant precautions might be to take for the future. But everyone knows that no matter what your reasons are, if you chose this path of your own free will, you are guilty and deserve whatever punishment should be meted out to you.
In the Rolling Stones controversial article about Dzhokhar, they published his motive behind the attack: “the U.S. government is killing our innocent civilians [presumably referring to Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan]. I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished. We Muslims are one body, you hurt one, you hurt us all.”
This sentiment is unsurprising. We’ve heard this before. Two wrongs don’t make a right, we say. You can’t kill more people to punish us for killing people in the first place. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, you were wrong.
And of course, he is undoubtedly, undeniably wrong. Let there be no mistake here. No matter what his reasons are, there is no excuse that can wipe clean the guilt of killing innocents. If indeed he participated in this of his own free will, he is unquestionably guilty. Purposely and maliciously taking the life of another is against not only the laws of our country, but against our very humanity. To think any other way is to deny the importance, the sanctity of human life. And the people and families he hurt deserve justice. Whatever punishment the law metes out to him will be what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev deserves.
But this justice opens the door for an even deeper irony, which has become convoluted and clouded by the vitriol, confusion, and hatred directed at the Tsarnaev brothers: the fact that Americans ARE killing innocent Muslim civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Tsarnaevs aren’t making this up, of course. It’s published in news sources, although never in the newspaper or on television.
A four year old girl named Aisha was traveling with her parents, sibling, and relatives to their home when a bomb fell. Everyone in the car was killed except for Aisha, whose face was completely destroyed, a gaping red hole where her eyes and nose had been. None of the people in the car were connected to terrorist groups.
Jabir al-Shabwani, a deputy governor in Marib, had met with al-Qaida members to mediate with them and encourage them to turn themselves in to the Yemeni authorities. He was killed in a botched attack by a US drone.
Ali al-Qawli, a schoolteacher and thirty-four year old father of three was a cheerful optimist who considered himself an activist for change and democracy. When he went to pick up men in his cousin’s taxi, he had no idea they were Al-Qaida members. He was killed in a drone strike.
When a whole tribe in Yemen got together to celebrate a wedding, a drone fell from the sky and struck five cars. Twelve men died and fifteen more were seriously injured. A wedding became a funeral. None of them were connected to terrorist groups.
Salim Ahmed Jaber was an imam of a mosque, schoolteacher, held a masters degree, and vocal opponent of al-Qaida from his pulpit. When he travelled to his ancestral village for a family wedding, he challenged local al-Quaida members to present evidence for their actions. When they agreed to hold a debate, US missiles were fired and killed Salim along with the Al-Quaida members.
Sixty-seven year old Momina Bibi, a midwife, was tending her garden and teaching her granddaughter how to tell if the okra was ready to be picked when fireballs tore through the sky, directed straight at her. When the smoke cleared, she was dead.
Her nine year old granddaughter, Nabeela, actually came to Washington DC with her father and brother to give testimony about drone strikes for a congressional hearing. Only five of the four hundred and thirty representatives showed up to listen.
Growing up in America, we have comforting platitudes we say in response to these kinds of things:
“We are fighting a war on terror.”
“Civilian casualties happen.”
“They hate our freedom.”
“It’s okay to sacrifice a few to save many.”
“This is just how war is fought now.”
“They started it with 9/11. Think of all those people who died.”
“Dangerous criminals were killed in these attacks too - the civilian deaths were worth it.”
“Its their fault if they were associating with al-Qaida.”
We say these things to reassure ourselves. We believe our government and military operates on the same moral standards we do. We assume that civilian lives matter to them the same way they do to us. But what do we know, really? All of this information is secret. We can only imagine officials sitting around a conference room somewhere, deciding who to kill, deciding where to strike. How many innocent people are worth the risk? How many innocent people are worth one al-Qaida dead? One? Two? Hundreds? Who gets to decide the value of a life? Of someone’s child, of someone’s grandmother?
Figures vary. Some say close to 1000 civilians were killed in just Palestine in the last five years. Just Palestine, not even Yemen or Iraq or Afghanistan. Just the tiny country of Palestine.
Just pause for a moment, consider that number. I know it’s easy to gloss over. One thousand innocent people, dead. No figure for how many thousands injured.
That’s three hundred and thirty Boston Marathon Bombings.
Just reread that sentence again.
That’s three hundred and thirty Boston Marathon Bombings.
That’s one Boston Marathon Bombing in three hundred and thirty cities in America.
That’s on Boston Marathon Bombing every day for almost a year.
Three hundred and thirty days of the fear I felt when I realized my boyfriend was working downtown that day and wasn’t answering his phone.
That’s three hundred and thirty days when three families realize their loved ones were dead and they weren’t coming back.
That’s three hundred and thirty times the terror and fear and confusion, three hundred and thirty times the pain and suffering, the lost limbs, the blood, and our collective pain as a city, as a nation.
And who is going to tell us when we’re wrong? When we cross the line? The US military is above reproach. Who will challenge us? What other country in the world is strong enough to challenge us?
It’s easy, simple, for us to turn to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and say, you killed people. You are guilty. You deserve our justice and you deserve to die. Your reasons don’t matter.
But who will turn to our military, to our government and say, you killed people? Who will deliver justice to the thousands we kill in foreign lands that are easy to forget about, people from cultures we don’t know and who speak a language we don’t understand?
How can we tell Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that he killed people, and his reasons don’t matter, but when we do the same, our reasons do?
Is it because we’re American, and they’re not?
Because it only matters when we know the people who died?
Because a four year old in Yemen doesn’t matter as much as an eight year old in Boston?
Because Momina Bibi’s life isn’t worth the same as Lingzi Lu’s or Sean Collier’s?
Because we can look away and say “They hate our freedom. Remember 9/11”?
Because our military is always right, and you are always wrong?
America, we’re supposed to be the best country in the world. How long can we wear this mantle of hypocrisy? How many wrongs is it going to take before we can make a right?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/specials/boston_marathon_bombing_victim_list/
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/malala-nabila-worlds-apart-201311193857549913.html
http://mic.com/articles/89135/8-stories-of-civilians-killed-by-u-s-drone-strikes-in-yemen
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/27/drones-attack-pakistan-family-rehman-congress
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article38777.htm
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/2/21/turning_a_wedding_into_a_funeral
