2002 Soap Box Archives

John Walker

I would be the first to say how sad it is that a young American
has gone over to the side of a brutal repressive bunch of thugs like the
Taliban and fight against the land of his birth.

But the sad truth is that’s exactly what John Walker did.
Now the country is in a quandary about what to do about him, whether to
try him as a traitor or wimp out and hide behind technicalities and
semantics and try him for some much lesser charge.

If John Walker is not a traitor we may as well take the word out of the
national vocabulary. Not only did he give aid and comfort to the enemy
but he actually took up arms against his fellow citizens and if that
doesn't make him a traitor I can’t imagine what does.

I saw his dad on television talking about what a good boy Robert was and
that he was misguided or brainwashed. I can certainly understand a
father taking up for his son, but the unfortunate fact is that the boy
has committed a heinous crime and now that it’s pay back time, they want
all to be forgiven.

Well I’m certainly willing to forgive him but that doesn’t change the
fact that Robert Walker has betrayed the United States of America and
now his dad seems to think we should welcome him back with open arms.
No way jose!

What John Walker did is a direct slap in the face of every red blooded
American youth who has enlisted in the armed forces and stands in harm’s
way to defend this nation against just such a thing as John Walker
was involved in.

It’s also spitting in the faces of the honorable men and women who
served in a military uniform since this nation fought England for its
independence.
It defiles every grave in Arlington cemetery and makes a mockery of
what America stands for.

When I stop and think about the bright eyed, motivated, young
people I’ve seen serving at the Northeast Gate in Cuba, the ones who
hold the line at the 38th parallel in Korea, on the aircraft carriers
and backwater bases, the ones who gave up some of the greatest days of
their lives to defend the American dream, it makes what John Walker has
done even more sickening.

The people John Walker got on board with were the ones who
facilitated and condoned the wanton murder of thousands of innocent men,
women and children and had the unmitigated gall to perpetrate an act of
horrendous evil on the most benevolent nation on the face of the earth.

And I don’t want any e-mails from any of you “Blame America first,
knot heads”, you shouldn’t even be reading this column anyway because
it represents everything you hate, and what you represent I hate, so
let’s just call it a wash.

As far as I’m concerned, John Walker renounced his American citizenship
the minute he took part in a fire fight against Americans. He is
getting a tremendous break by not being left in Afghanistan which he
probably technically could have been. At least here he’ll get a trial
and often times the Afghanistan way of trying a foreign national is a
bullet in the back of the head.

While there are those who want to say that what John Walker did is not
his fault, I would have to agree to a small extent because I believe
that part of the blame should be put on his father. When you let a
young teenager go to a place like the troubled Middle East, obstensively
to study Islam, in my opinion you are not doing your parental duty at
all.

John Walker should have been snatched up by the nap of his neck and told
what he would and would not do accompanied by a good application of a
board to his posterior.

Unfortunately John Walker didn’t have this kind of guidance and look
where he has ended up.

It seems that some people want to treat John Walker as if he were an
errant boy scout. The truth of the matter is that no amount of
semantics or political correctness, no amount of lawyer double talk or
liberal jurisprudence can change the fact that John Walker is a traitor
and if he isn’t treated as such we should apologize to the grave of
Benedict Arnold.

What do you think?

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels