>Al-Q is at war with us. You may not believe it, accept it, want to deal with
>it, or wish to change the subject. But they are out there planning new
>attacks, minus these six.
They are not at "war" with the USA in any meaningful sense, they are merely criminals. You cannot have it both ways, you cannot refuse to treat captured Al-Q as prisoners of war, but insist you have the right to kill them as you would soldiers of a warring army.
The very fact that Al-Q conducts itself that way, without regard to accepted standards of war, is what makes it merely a criminal conspiracy, rather than a legitimate military opponent. When the US government conducts itself in the same murderous and lawless way as Al-Q, this is also a criminal conspiracy. It can't even be dignified as war crime, just ordinary everyday murder.
Osama Bin laden is a common criminal. So are the people in the Bush administration who are responsible for crimes such as kidnapping and now murder of suspected A-Q people.
There is nothing wrong with arresting suspects and putting them on trial. But the US government doesn't do this, it merely kidnaps suspects and arbitrarily holds them captive. in the same fashion as the hostages in Lebanon were held, or the hostages held by Chechen criminal gangs. It is blatantly criminal behaviour, so as a citizen of the US who supports this, I hold you personally responsible for these outrageous crimes.
If suspects violently resist arrest, then some of them may be killed in a shoot-out. But to simply murder them in cold blood is the behaviour of gangsters. You can't even name all those in the car, you have no evidence whatsoever that they were all guilty of any crime, to sanction their murder makes you an animal.
Or do you consider it legitimate for any self-appointed vigilante to go out and kill anyone merely accused of a crime. Is that the sort of society you would want to live in? If not, how dare you say it is OK for your government to turn the rest of the world into that sort of society. Please shit in your own backyard, not someone else's.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas