Thursday, October 19, 2006

On Treason And Those Who Promote It

[The following article originally appeared in the Roanoke Times on September 14, 2006] 

What's a Proper Punishment?
By Jerry Fuhrman

It can be said without too much exaggeration that Adam Gadahn is a member in good standing of the angry left in this country.

Born 27 years ago to hippie parents in Orange County, Calif., he and his sister were raised in an anti-war (and anti-electricity, anti-indoor plumbing) household where he learned a trade that proved to be of considerable value in later life. He and his father made a living by "humanely" slaughtering goats (by slitting their throats in ceremonial fashion), and by selling the prepared carcasses to the local Muslim community as food.

His expertise apparently has taken him -- as best the FBI can tell -- to Pakistan, where he interacts with al-Qaida's top terrorists today, and where his throat-slitting skills presumably are greatly appreciated. You may have seen Gadahn's photo on TV the other day. He was the young man shown on the Al Jazeera video, in full beard and Muslim raiment, along with the world's second most villainous terrorist -- Ayman Al-Zawahiri.

Gadahn created quite a stir when he sent the following message to our fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan: " ... we invite all Americans and other unbelievers to Islam, wherever they are, and whatever their role and status in Bush and Blair's world order. And we send a special invitation to all of you fighting Bush's crusader pipe dream in Afghanistan, Iraq and wherever else 'W' has sent you to die. You know the war can't be won and that the condition of America's war machine is going from bad to worse. You know you're considered by Bush and his bunch of warmongers as nothing more than expendable cannon fodder -- a means to an end."

"You know the war can't be won." "Bad to worse." "Cannon fodder." From the lips of an enemy intent on slaughtering our children and grandchildren.

A number of pundits drew a parallel after the video aired between Gadahn and one William Joyce. For those not around during World War II, Joyce, known as "Lord Haw Haw," was another traitor to his country. Born in the U.S., he subsequently moved to England where, in adulthood, he took up fascism -- the hippie fad of the day -- only to flee the country in 1939 to avoid arrest.

Eventually settling in Hamburg, he became a naturalized German citizen. From there, Joyce began broadcasting radio messages back to England and to troops fighting the Nazis on the continent, telling the allies that all hope was lost, that the SS and Wehrmacht were crushing the American and British troops on the battlefield, that Nazism was the inexorable way of the future, etc.

Sounds disturbingly like Gadahn, yes?

So now the question becomes: What do we do with this traitor? What should we do with a man who tells us that all hope is lost and who seeks our defeat? What's to be done with a man who says, "The global war on terror has become a global war of error. Attacking or threatening countries which did not attack us. Bombing neighborhoods to save neighborhoods. Committing atrocities in the name of stopping atrocities"?

What do we do with someone who denigrates the service of our brave soldiers by saying, "You would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners."

What should happen to a man who says the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong"?

When he says, "And there is no reason ... that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children ... "?

I should tell you, those last four quotes actually came from influential Washington Democrats, not from Adam Gadahn. Tough to differentiate between them, isn't it? So what should be done with these perfidious defeatists in our midst? In the case of William Joyce, Lord Haw Haw was captured at the end of WWII, was tried and was summarily executed.