US Military’s Livestreamed Execution: A Clash of State Violence, Religious Ethics, and Global Capitalism’s Spectacle Economy
Original framing: “Archbishop of US military condemns Pentagon plans to livestream execution” — The Guardian - World
The U.S. military’s use of executions as a tool of discipline and control dates back to the 19th century, with the first recorded military execution in 1801. During the Philippine-American War (1899–1902), the U.S. military executed thousands of Filipinos, often in public spectacles designed to instill fear. More recently, the 2003 execution of Private Lynndie England’s dog, Spike, by U.S. soldiers in Iraq—livestreamed and shared online—mirrors the Pentagon’s current plans, revealing a pattern of militarized cruelty normalized through media. These historical precedents show how livestreamed executions are not anomalies but part of a continuum of state violence.
The Pentagon’s decision to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan is not an isolated ethical failure but a deliberate amplification of state violence within a broader framework of militarized spectacle.
This move aligns with historical patterns of using executions as tools of control—from colonial-era hangings to modern-day psychological warfare—and risks normalizing capital punishment as entertainment, a trend already evident in authoritarian regimes like Iran and Saudi Arabia. The archbishop’s religious objection, while morally valid, operates within the same institutional power structures that perpetuate this violence, offering a critique without dismantling the system. Indigenous justice models, such as the Haudenosaunee *Gayanashagowa*, provide a stark alternative, emphasizing restorative practices over punitive spectacle. The absence of marginalized voices—including those of military families, abolitionists, and the executed—further obscures the systemic nature of this issue. A trickster reading reveals the absurdity of the Pentagon’s move, exposing it as a desperate attempt to legitimize cruelty through media, while scientific and artistic lenses highlight the long-term harm to soldiers and society. To address this, systemic solutions must include military abolition of capital punishment, media reform to ban livestreamed executions, integration of Indigenous justice models, and a global coalition to challenge spectacle as a tool of state control.