Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 39, Issue 8


Volume 39, Issue 8. Today is .

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Volume 39, Issue 8
January 15, 2002

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Reason for treason?
Legend's View

This past December an American citizen was captured in Afghanistan who was a member of the Taliban and Al Qaida forces.

John Walker Lindh, 20, from California had your average suburban upbringing in the United States. He was much like any average student his age.

He was a fan of hip-hop music. He converted to the Islam religion and everything changed for Walker. He became passionate in his new-found religion and eventually moved to Afghanistan where he was recruited by the Taliban.

Then everything went topsy-turvy. Sept. 11 ranks as one of the most infamous days in American history. It hasn’t been established exactly what role Walker was playing in the Taliban at the time leading up to the attacks on New York City and Washington DC.

It is apparent that his family loves and cares about him very much from news reports and feature stories written about them.

Walker is going through one of the toughest times in his life right now. And the time he is going through is so tough it would make any woe of American society look like day camp at Disneyland.

But how tough is his time going to get? The decision on what to charge him with is still up in the air. Does he get charged with treason? Does he get charged with aiding a known terrorist group?

A treason conviction could warrant the death penalty.

The "aiding a known terrorist group" charge could warrant about ten years in federal prison.

The United States has already martyred Timothy McVeigh. When they murdered McVeigh his point was proven. Are they going to martyr Walker as well?

Eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.

A rose by any other name. . . would still be murder.

Killing someone for disagreeing with what the government stands for is still murder.

What point would the government have to prove by killing Walker?

What good would it do to kill him?

Walker was young, passionate, and naive. A proven volatile mix. He was a passionate Muslim that wanted to be as pure as possible and moved to an area that he knew to be religiously strong. It is doubtful he fully understood the political imbalance that was involved in that area. He was naive. He got taken in by a group that turned out to have a plot against the United States.

He made a mistake. Walker is 20 years old. He ended up biting off more than he was able to chew and now he faces death for it.

Granted, his actions do need punishment.

Ignoring the fact that a conviction of treason would be next to impossible at this point due to lack of hard evidence. The "aiding a terrorist group" charge would hold more water and would save America from having to kill one more of her sons.

Shun the society or not. The United States is the greatest country in the world when you consider that we are free to feel how we want and say what we want in the free press.

Aside from the fact that his exact role is unknown at this point, Walker should not be killed at all. This is in the logic that killing one more would never bring back those already lost and it will in no sense prevent more deaths.

The Taliban is bigger than Walker could ever be.

Do you expel the quarterback if the football team loses a game?

Rather than look for revenge, let’s focus our energies on saving more lives in the future and a treason conviction would do absolutely no one any good.