“If the killing of scores of people in a murderous rampage is “mass murder,” what do we call the killing of millions by governments such as the Nazis, Soviets, Red Chinese, and Pol Pot?”
I think we would call it crimes against humanity or genocide.
Some people are advocating judging Breivik by the laws for crimes against humanity since that could give a higher level of sentence.
However, I think it is a better solution to try him for each and every murder. That will make it clear that he’s just a murderer. A sentence under the laws of crimes against humanity will easily give him a kind of victory, since he would then be sentenced under the laws meant for people with a political agenda.
Agreed. In the same way, it was an egregious error to accord the opposition in Iraq POW status when they were violating every tenant of the Geneva conventions when they fell into our hands. Not saying that they should necessarily have been summarily executed - but that in principle they legally could have been. The principle is that once Saddam no longer had an address, our forces were enforcing martial law until the new Iraqi government could be constituted. And any attempt on the life of a coalition soldier was a case of murder, but one under conditions of military rather than civil proceedings.