<DIV>The basis that I advocate for capital punishment of war criminals and criminals against humanity is not deterrence, but retribution -- constrained revenge. No doubt they would not be deterred. They don't expect to be caught. The idea is that thedy have done things that are so bad that they have forfeited their right to live. jks JBrown72073@cs.com wrote: <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">>I wonder if these recurrent >discussion themes are a spiral or a circle We hope an upward rather than a downward spiral. So we know the death penalty isn't a deterrent for most violent crime, but is it a deterrent for the likes of Kissinger or Pinochet? (Recognizing that the sample of those who faced such a deterrent is damnably small.) There's the theory that the threat of revolution (or actual neighboring revolutions) sometimes restrains these types from more egregious crimes. Jenny Brown ___________________________________ http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><hr SIZE=1> Do you Yahoo!? <a href="http://pa.yahoo.com/*http://rd.yahoo.com/evt=1207/*http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/">SBC Yahoo! DSL</a> - Now only $29.95 per month!