HOW TO ATTAIN PERFECT SAFETY IN AN AGE OF TERRORISM

Benjamin Franklin once noted, “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” Someone later added, “And in the end will get neither.”

"Terrorism" is defined as "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes." It is also "the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization."

The goal of terrorists is to invoke a "state of fear" that will cause people to act in a way the terrorists desire.

The USA Patriot Act provides that anyone who gives material aid or comfort to the terrorists is a terrorist and should be treated accordingly.

Charles Krauthammer writes that al Qaida "is a fanatical religious sect dedicated to establishing the most oppressive medieval theocracy and therefore committed to unending war with America ..." and which opposes "individual liberty" and "social equality." He argues that we will be at greater risk of future al Qaida terror attacks if we close the prison camp at Guantanamo or if we afford rights guaranteed by the Constitution to persons accused of terrorism.

Thomas Sowell agrees with Mr. Krauthammer: "Terrorists are not covered by the Geneva convention for the simple reason that they do not abide by the Geneva convention. They are enemy combatants and you do not turn enemy combatants loose to go back to killing Americans while the war is still on-- not if you are being serious."

Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Sowell want Americans to be afraid because of past acts of terrorism. They want Americans to curtail our Constitutional freedoms out of fear of future acts of terrorism. They oppose affording human beings who are accused of furthering the goals of the terrorists public trials on American soil. They oppose due process of law, the right to counsel, impartial juries, and the exclusion of confessions coerced through torture- all basic rights which are essential to a free country.

The only logical conclusion is that Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Sowell are giving aid and comfort to the stated goals of the terrorists, in that both men want Americans to be so afraid that this will no longer be a country "with liberty and justice for all." (For those who are irony impaired, that quote is from the Pledge of Allegiance.)

Therefore, Mr. Krauthammer and Mr. Sowell should be detained at Guantanamo as enemy combatants, interrogated with enhanced interrogation techniques to discover their links to al Qaida, and held without trial or access to counsel until the War on Terror is declared over (which, at the current rate of success, should occur sometime in the 23rd century).