Lead them astray? You act as if the people had a choice in their leader, they did not. I would wager that even speaking out against him would have resulted in torture and/or death.
People of a nation tend to emulate their leaders. We even see it in the US. For a long time, our leaders spent more than they made, but individuals were more sensible. Now, individuals are like their government and we have the mess we are currently in.
So if tomorrow you commit some bad crime you think it is a perfectly reasonable punishment for the justice system to give your child the death penelty for your crimes? Really?
Obviously, many people today think it is fine to execute an unborn child for the crime of rape of that child's father, so don't think it is some odd view.
That said, give specific examples so I know what you are talking about.
A people are punished as a group for the actions of a group. If Afghanistan, as a hypothetical example only, were to harbor a man who planned some attacks against the US which killed thousands of US citizens, the people of Afghanistan would be punished for the actions of their government. Purely hypothetical, of course, but I am sure you can see such a thing happening.
The people did not choose their leader. They could not have chosen their leader if they wanted to. They had absolutely no part in him being their leader or his actions. Knowing that you still think it is ok to kill not only the innocent but innocent children to punish someone for something that those innocents had absolutely no control over.
No offense but that is truly sick and evil.
Not sick or evil at all. The people were punished as a whole for the crimes of their nation. This is a common and acceptable thing even today. I point to my hypothetical example, above.
No, I mean punishing innocent people who have absolutely no control over the person who did commit the crimes nor the ability to prevent that person to commit the crimes instead of the actual criminal. Do you think that should be an acceptable form of justice today?
It already is. Even the UN agrees that a people can be punished for the actions of their rulers. Other than the hypothetical example I already listed, I can give another purely hypothetical example.
Lets say Iran were to be developing nuclear weapons. Obviously they would never try to do this, but if they did, sanctions could be placed on the nation which would deprive the people of many goods and services until the leaders of the nation comply. Like I said, this is purely hypothetical, but it might happen sometime.