Letter: Don't endorse Gadhafi's killing

Columnist Charles Krauthammer minimizes the horror of former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's torture and killing, by saying, "So he was killed by his captors. Big deal. So was Mussolini" ["Dictators, learn Gadhafi rule," Opinion, Oct. 27].

Well, Mr. Krauthammer, it is a big deal. Such a display of barbaric, sadistic, torturous murder at the hands of street punks posing as liberators or good guys is truly disturbing and can never be accepted. The thing that separates us from the likes of Gadhafi is that he commits those horrific acts, and we don't. Cruelty and sadism and torture are barbarism, no matter to whom it is done, whether that be Gadhafi, Mussolini or John McCain. Friedrich Nietzsche warned us, "Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one."

If Krauthammer thinks that there is benefit in these acts because they will deter other dictators from being barbaric, perhaps he advocates cutting off the hands of thieves as a lesson to other would-be thieves.