Paul Daley, a Guardian Australia columnist, has written that a proposal to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan by firing squad opens a window ever wider to the Trump administration’s complete moral vacuity. He expressed that he had thought nothing the administration could do or say, no matter how politically and morally bankrupt, venal or violent, was capable of shocking him any longer, until he heard the news.
Hegseth announces public firing squad execution
Pete Hegseth, described by Daley as an uber Christian nationalist and crusader-fantasist, announced that America would have a public firing squad execution of murderer Nidal Hasan. Hasan, a former army psychiatrist, killed 13 people at a US army base in 2009. The execution is scheduled to be livestreamed on Thursday 3 December.
Daley noted that reckless global militarisation, including a threat at the UN to annihilate Iran, a litany of sexual misconduct allegations against the commander in chief, and claims of blatant presidential corruption have ceased to surprise and shock, so inured has the world become to Donald Trump’s monstrous narcissism and maladministration.
State-sanctioned killing as entertainment
Daley described the proposal as state-sanctioned killing as entertainment, stating that the world’s supposedly greatest (or formerly greatest) democracy has arrived at an horrific new moral nadir. He said that the fact 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.
He added that being so closely allied to a country that now wants to turn the execution of a human being into a live entertainment event promises to redefine depravity. Daley questioned where the United States might ultimately draw the line, given that American states continue to execute so many convicted criminals.
Australia urged to condemn and rethink alliance
Daley called for political leaders the world over to condemn the plan, starting in Australia, where federal governments have for a long time opposed capital punishment. He asked whether the prime minister and senior ministers will stand up and condemn without qualification this depraved plan, and what about leaders of other political parties, some of whom have supported capital punishment.
He also questioned how much further into the moral quagmire America must wallow before Australia rethinks its craven military dependence on Washington, not least via the $368bn (and counting) Aukus submarine deal.
Announcing the decision, 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 defense department later confirmed the execution would be livestreamed. Daley concluded that this represents a significant lurch in the US from civilisation towards savagery, and that the 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.
