Philosophy (of sorts)

"Chemical Ali" is condemned today. While I understand that this man and men like him are truly terrible people, is legalised murder really a cause for celebration? It makes me extremely sad that a group of people can do such horrifying things to another group of people that the entire world, whose leaders can rarely agree on anything, agrees that these men should die for their crimes. When considering this eventuality, I feel torn. The families of victims of the Hussein regime must feel the need for some kind of closure on this terrible chapter in their lives, and certainly they deserve that, even if they must still live in a world torn apart by war and political games. However, what does it say when killers are killed? Is it morally acceptable to kill a human if that human has wronged another? If so, where is the line that shows us when an offense is horrifying enough to make it acceptable, and when it simply deserves imprisonment or some lesser punishment? Certainly, this is a question that has, and will continue to plague human society, but it is one that I feel particularly poignantly today.
Though I think i can live with the execution of Ali. He is a bad, bad man.