Date: January 19, 2002
"Beneath the Surface" Treason By Any Other Name ...
When Walker was captured in Afghanistan by American troops, he should have been kept in Afghanistan and pursuant to Bush’s order authorizing the use of military tribunals, placed on trial and if convicted, summarily executed with said execution videotaped - if for no other reason but to send a message to discourage others from doing the same thing.
Do not get me wrong; I am not a ghoul - not by any stretch of the imagination. I am just thinking about the old "Evil Empire" of the former Soviet Union. When Ivan executed someone publicly, they did it to make a point. Just as some countries like Saudi Arabia carry out executions in public, they also do it to make a point - that being to discourage others from engaging in similar activity.
Walker’s "civilian trial" will be nothing more than a dog and pony show that is being done to accommodate his rich, bored white parents who were unable to keep their marriage together for whatever reason. Had Walker been black, Hispanic, Asian or from a working class white family, I know that he wouldn’t be receiving anywhere near such favorable consideration.
Part of the problem stems back almost 60 years. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt - on consent of Congress - declared war against the Empire of Japan. With a formal declaration of war against Japan and later Germany and Italy and the other Axis powers, we as a nation were free to use whatever means were necessary to achieve victory, and in 1945, we did just that - first in Europe with the surrender of the Nazis and later in Japan with the signing of the Armistice in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri, which continued to see service up to and through the Persian Gulf War.
Then the United Nations came along, and with it some idiot idea that we, the United States - a sovereign nation - must clear ops with them, before we do anything. Consequently, with the current Bush administration starting to smell like the first one, one cannot help but see a buckling to "world opinion".
Well, excuse me! It wasn’t their twin towers that got hit on September 11th. It wasn’t their military headquarters that was hit by a hijacked commercial airliner. They did not suffer the loss of over 3000 lives in just over an hour because someone had an ax to grind for whatever reason or another.
Most member countries of the United Nations are nothing more than America-haters and/or wannabes of one kind or another and most of their conferences or conventions are anti-America/Israel orgies denouncing one facet of Western life or another.
With Walker now facing federal charges in civilian court, his parents now have the opportunity to put their big bucks into O.J. Simpson-caliber lawyers coming up with all kinds of excuses as to why this kid went to Afghanistan and turned against his country. He will rationalize his actions and do what he can to get either an insanity ruling, or five to fifteen instead of facing a military firing squad in Afghanistan where he should have been, with said execution having occurred by now.
Like the John Walker of 20 years ago who built a Naval espionage network with family and friends and sold cryptographic secrets to the Soviets and who should have also been shot, so too, should this John Walker face this fate as well for what he has done to his country.
Our nation owes its people - all its people, and particularly the children of CIA Agent Johnny "Mike" Spann. His death must not be in vain, and seeing to it somehow - if at all possible that the younger Walker is executed will send a message to the enemies of America that the ultimate crime carries with it the ultimate penalty. If not him, who, and if not now, when?
Let the line be drawn here and now - for ourselves as a nation, for our children and especially for those yet to come - our children’s children and beyond.
We owe them no less.
Timothy Rollins
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Copyright © 2002 by Timothy Rollins. -Published with permission
OpinioNet Contributed Commentary - Timothy Rollins <tim@opinionet.com>
I really don’t give a damn what the Justice Department (Attorney General John Ashcroft, shown left) wants to call it, but the notion of trying American traitor John Walker (Lindh) in an American civilian court for charges of aid and comfort to the Taliban (can you say enemy?) is a slap in the face to any and all who have ever worn the uniform of their country - particularly so for those who are still over in Afghanistan fighting not only for those who died in the attacks of 9-11, but also for those Americans both at home and abroad who remain at risk (can you say all of us?) with al-Qaeda, their cells throughout the world and their sympathizers who seek the destruction of the West, and more particularly, Americans.
Attorney General John Ashcroft
John Walker (Lindh)
For those who say poor, poor Walker, look at the other side of the coin. There was videotape shown of CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann interrogating Walker just before Spann’s death, leaving behind two children. Spann’s ex-wife - the mother of his two children, has also since died - of cancer, thus leaving his children orphaned in the space of less than three months. Who will cry for them?
CIA agent Johnny "Mike" Spann
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