Outrageous Issue
Of The Herald

I am not a letter writer as a usual thing, but this last issue of the Herald was so outrageous that I am compelled to speak up.

Page one below the fold trumpeted, "Gitmo Tribunals Are Decried." The article by Sandy Cooch went on explain how at the invitation of the law school that denies JAG recruiters on campus, an army major and a navy commander in uniform were defending terrorist detainees and criticizing both the Department of Defense and Congressional actions for dealing with such people. There was no mention of this double standard.

The JAGs actually had laudatory comments for the US Supreme Court ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, where the most incredible spin on our national law and ratified treaty law were cobbled together to produce a ruling contrary to our law or international law.

Then on page two, Ms Cooch gushed on about the joint efforts of civilian attorneys and JAGs to defend these killers that have for the most part been captured on the battlefield trying to kill Americans.

Under the Geneva Conventions, which we have ratified, spies and saboteurs have no protections under the four international treaties that comprise the convention. The Uniform Code of Military Justice provides for prisoners of war, but not for spies and saboteurs, the kinds of killers that the detainees represent. Indeed, a significant number of the detainees released have been subsequently killed on the battlefield trying again to kill Americans.

The original plans the U. S. Supreme Court struck down in Hamdan were patterned on FDR's military tribunals for spies and saboteurs, a strong tribute to Western civilization's provisions for such people. Was FDR so wrong?

And then to ice the cake, the editorial urged folks to vote for Sanders and Welch, two people who would doubtless seek to make nice with the terrorists. I guess they, and the editor, forget that the militant brand of Islam that the terrorists seek demands that we all become Moslems or die. Sanders, being Jewish, should be most fearful as the terrorists want the death of all Jews.

America has been a beacon of freedom for not yielding our core values and for defending the victims of oppression, so why are some folks so willing to treat these fanatics as though they were actually deserving of a civilized trial as we would provide for a criminal in this country? We shoot mad dogs and the difference between these terrorists and mad dogs is not discernable.

Karen A. Kerin

South Royalton