THE ROAD TO TREASON

Bald Eagle

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THE ROAD TO TREASON

By Jeff Jacoby The Boston Globe December 13, 2001

It isn't the case that the parents of John Walker -- the Marin County child of privilege turned Taliban terrorist -- never drew the line with their son. True, they didn't do so when he was 14 and his consuming passion was collecting hip-hop CDs with especially nasty lyrics. And true, they didn't put their foot down when he announced at 16 that he was going to drop out of Tamiscal High School -- the elite "alternative" school where students determined their own course of study and only saw a teacher once a week. And granted, they didn't interfere when he abruptly decided to become a Muslim after reading *The Autobiography of Malcolm X,* grew a beard, and took to wearing long white robes and an oversized skullcap.

On the contrary: His father was "proud of John for pursuing an alternative course" and his mother told friends that it was "good for a child to find a passion." Nor did they object when he began spending more and more time at a local mosque and set about trying to memorize the Koran. Nor when he asked his parents to pay his way to Yemen so he could learn to speak "pure" Arabic. Nor when they learned that his new circle of friends included gunmen who had been to Chechnya to fight the Russians. Nor when he headed to Pakistan to join a madrassah in a region known to be a stronghold of Islamist extremists. His parents also didn't balk when he went to fight in Afghanistan -- but that, at least, they didn't know about: Walker hadn't told them. Perhaps by that point he had learned to take their consent for granted.

Only once, it seems, did Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker actually deny their son something he wanted. When he first adopted Islam and took the name Suleyman, they refused to use it and insisted on calling him John. After all, he had been named for one of the giants of our time: John Lennon. Their refusal must have amazed him. For as long as he could remember, his oh-so-progressive parents had answered "Yes" to his every whim, indulged his every fancy, permitted -- even praised -- his every passion. The only thing they insisted on was that nothing be insisted on.

Nothing in his life was important enough for them to make an issue of: not his schooling, not his religion, not his appearance, not even whether he stayed in America or moved -- while still a minor -- to a benighted Third World oligarchy halfway around the world. Nothing. Except, of course, their right to call him by the name of their favorite Beatle.

Devout practitioners of the self-obsessed nonjudgmentalism for which the Bay Area is renowned, Lindh and Walker appear never to have rebuked their son or criticized his choices. In their world, there were no absolutes, no fixed truths, no mandatory behavior, no thou-shalt-nots. If they had one conviction, it was that all convictions are worthy -- that nothing is intolerable except intolerance.

But even in Marin County, there are times when children need to hear "No" and "Don't." They need to know that there are limits they must respect and expectations they must try to live up to. If they cannot find those limits and expectations at home, they are apt to look for them elsewhere.

Newsweek calls it "truly perplexing" that Walker, who "grew up in possibly the most liberal, tolerant place in America . . was drawn to the most illiberal, intolerant sect in Islam." There is nothing perplexing about it. He craved standards and discipline. Mom and Dad didn't offer any. The Taliban did. Even when it was clear that their son was sinking into Islamist fanaticism, they wouldn't pull back on the reins. When Osama bin Laden's terrorists bombed the USS Cole and killed 17 American servicemen, Walker e-mailed his father that the attack had been justified, since by docking the ship in Yemen, the United States had committed "an act of war."

Lindh now says that the message "raised my concerns" -- but that didn't stop him from wiring Walker another $1,200. After all, says Dad, "my days of molding him were over." It isn't clear that they ever began. It undoubtedly came as a jolt to his parents when Walker turned up at the fortress near Mazar-i-Sharif, sporting an AK-47 and calling himself Abdul Hamid. But the revelation that their son had enlisted in Al Qaeda and supported the Sept. 11 attacks brought no words of reproach -- or self-reproach -- to their lips.

Walker deserved "a little kick in the butt" for keeping them in the dark about his plans, his father said, but otherwise they just wanted to "give him a big hug." His mother, meanwhile, was quite sure that "if he got involved with the Taliban he must have been brainwashed. . . When you're young and impressionable, it's easy to be led by charismatic people." Yes, it is, and it's a pity that that didn't occur to her sooner. If she and Lindh had been less concerned with flaunting their open-mindedness and more concerned with developing their son's moral judgment, he wouldn't be where he is today. Walker is responsible for his own behavior and he will pay the price the law requires. But his road to treason and jihad didn't begin in Afghanistan. It began in Marin County, with parents who never said "No."



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Bald Eagle
Hunt like a gentleman.
 
A friend of mine emailed that Boston Globe editorial to me.

Here's what I told him:

What a crock of pure b.s.

Here are some things to consider before you buy into the Boston Globe journalistic rant in your email below.

1. John Walker Lindh is entitled to pursue any religious bent he desires. It's called freedom of religion. Americans have been known to die defending that right.

2. John Walker Lindh can listen to any music he wants to. Even rap music with "nasty" lyrics. Millions of young Americans listen to that crap, but they don't run off to join radical movements. Cause and effect? Hardly.
It's called freedom of speech. Americans have been known to die defending that right. John Walker Lindh's opinions about American deaths on the USS Cole being justified makes me mad as hell. I think he's wrong, but does he have the right to say those things? Yes. Again, it's that thing called freedom of speech. Americans have been known to die defending that right.

3. Naming your child after John Lennon poisons their mind and puts them them on the road to becoming a terrorist? That's a stretch. I suppose if your parents named you after John Wayne, you are destined to be a homosexual mass murderer, like John Wayne Gacy. Or a wife beater, like John Wayne Bobbit.

4. Moving to another country to study your religion of choice or the language is wrong? I think the godless communists tried to squash that sort of thing with an experiment call the Berlin Wall, didn't they? If you need a closer example, how about Cuba?

3. John Walker Lindh was an adult fighting in Afghanistan months before the Americans crashed the party. He didn't go over there to fight Americans. The Spec Ops guys were sneaky-footing around the hills in afgani clothes on horse back. Not exactly "conspiring to kill Americans", to my way of thinking. When the USAF started dropping bombs on his head, he retreated and then surrendered.

Reportedly, the choices offered to him when he showed up to fight the Northern Alliance was more training to become a real terrorist to kill American civilians, or go to the front lines and fight the N.A. He chose to fight the N.A. As I recall, the taliban fighters that tried to surrender early on in the fighting with the Americans were having a lot of 7.62 cal holes drilled in their backs by the guys not wanting to give up the fight. Did he want to quit fighting? I don't know.

So anyway, there he was, sitting in a prison. The bad guys revolted, and an American CIA agent was killed. Did John boy do it? Did he help anybody else do it. I don't know. When the prison riot in Attica occured back in the 70's, did everybody there get charged with murder just because they were there? No. Why not? Why this bafoon now?

Did I raise my kids like he was raised?
No.

Do I think the way he was raised made him a radical fundamentalist Muslim
terrorist?
No.

Is John Walker Lindh mentally balanced?
Probably not.

Should people be allowed to make their own decisions as to what religion to
follow? What countries to visit or live in? Whose ideals to follow? What
language to speak?
Yes, absolutely! And if you understand American ideals, you should think so
too. You should defend to the death, their right to choose those things. Even if they are dumb asses.

If this d1p$h1t's actions are the result of his parents nonjudgmental methods of raising him, and those methods turned him into a "Taliban terrorist" as Mr. Jacoby argues, please explain to me how an all-American U.S.Army veteran from the heartland, raised in a Christian home by conservative parents, ended up being the terrorist who blew up the federal building in OKC.

You do believe Timmie did it, don't you? Your government told you he did. That same government that is telling you that John Walker Lindt is a terrorist and a murderer.

Ask yourself, do we just want to drag his butt out in the town square and lynch him, facts be damned? Or do we want to see justice done? I think the taliban using the first method when they hung folks at the soccer stadium is one of the reasons we are telling ourselves we are freeing the Afgan people. Let's see what the facts are. let's see what the spin is. My money is riding on a kangaroo court convicting him to appease the mob.


Be careful what you ask for, you just might be the next one to get it when your government decides you are a terrorist.
 
Mike you make a very good point.
Not going to make any judgements on wether he is guilty or not but if he is We, ( the US) has to make it clear that treason or giving US secrets to foriegn gov'ts (the FBI agent,Hansen) is not going to be tolerated. Its becoming all to passive in recent times. I'm not talking about life in prison 3 squares a day. the death penalty is more in line.

[This message has been edited by howler (edited 01-28-2002).]
 
The question was not "Did he have the right to choose", but rather "Did he choose right?" If John Walker Lindh had known in advance that the Taliban was going to be denounced by the U.S. Govt. would he STILL have made his choice to join them? Who knows? But, today he is paying the price for making a BAD decision. His decision. His freedom of choice. Guaranteed. Choose wisely. Americans have been known to die defending your right to choose. Don't waste it.

[This message has been edited by NASA (edited 01-28-2002).]
 
Should we uphold the rights of freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of choice?
Yes, we most definetily should!
At the same time a parents job is teach right from wrong and limits need to be set. We can still give these freedoms, but are we to give these freedoms to CHILDREN who only have the experiences of a few short years behind them. How many of us tried to make big decisions in our youth without the input of our parents. How many other bad choices would we have made if the adults in our lives had just encoureged us into everything without teaching that everything has consecinces and not teaching us right from wrong. I am most definetly not saying that minors need the freedom of choice taken away. They just need to be guided, not turned loose with no one watching. At the same time we should not try to have absolute control over our childrens lives.


[This message has been edited by talon (edited 01-28-2002).]
 
Absolutely. But I think total control is necessary, up to a point. And that point is where you can see that your efforts at teaching responsibility and common sense have taken hold. Most of us see that starting at around 8-10 years. Unfortunately, some parent just can't figure out how do it (or don't want to be bothered) in the 18 years that the law allows them.
 
NASA, you missed my point. It's not a question of "Did little Johnnie get properly inculcated in the social mores of American society?". It's a question of standing by silently while our government is treating its citizens "With justice for all" except when it wants to make an example of somebody. And that is exactly what's going on in this case. John Walker Lindt is a sorry excuse for an American, but that doesn't excuse our representatives acting like they are too, or the public (read mob) condoning it. It's b.s. plain and simple.
These are the same folks that are trying to erode your rights in the name of protecting you from the terrorist boogy man.

As John Mellencamp said in one of his songs "You got to stand for something, or you will fall for anything" And I ain't falling for their BeeEss ! !
 
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