On 2004-06-27T17:53:05-0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
<http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Jun-27-Sun-2004/opinion/24127406.html>
I will vote for a candidate who -- if he had his way -- would [...] pull us out of the deadly, illegal and unconstitutional war in Iraq; and put the U.S. military back to work tracking down the real culprits of Sept. 11.
Just because it's a "deadly" (what war isn't?) and "illegal" (Bush's lawyers would take issue with that) doesn't mean the proper course of action is to leave. Right or wrong, we created this mess. We now bear some responsibility for cleaning it up. Once everything is cleaned up, he's right: we should leave immediately. Have we yet fixed the pipelines that "terrorists" have blown up because of our presence in Iraq?
"At which point, if we can find them, you think it would be OK to just kill them?" I asked the candidate last week.
"Sure," Badnarik said.
Sounds about right to me.
For some strange value of "real culprits," perhaps. 19 of the "real culprits" are already dead, and who knows how many with some knowledge of the attacks are already in prison. From what I've heard about the way the cells operated, Atta had primary control over the details of the plan. Osama just had to approve it. Osama probably deserves to die for his role in various attacks, but is he a "real culprit" of 9/11? -- "Once you knew, you'd claim her, and I didn't want that." "Not your decision to make." "Yes, but it's the right decision, and I made it for my daughter." - Beatrix; Bill ...Kill Bill Vol. 2