The "Poor Kid" Taliban

» BuckyRea - Watch This

I just found the transcripts to George W Bush's Dec 4th interview with Barbara Walters. In there is this following exchange concerning John Walker Lindh, the American-born Talib fighting under the name of "Abdul Hamid." I've underlined the bits I find curious.

PRESIDENT BUSH ...Well, we think — we're not sure — we're just trying to learn the facts about this poor fellow.
Obviously he has been misled. It appears to me he thought he was going to fight for a great cause; and in fact, he was going to support a government that was one of the most repressive governments in the history of mankind. Surely he was raised better than to know that a government that suppresses women and women's rights, that doesn't educate young girls, is not the kind of government worth dying for.

BARBARA WALTERS What do we do with him?

PRESIDENT BUSH I don't know. We're trying to figure that out. I can't make any news right now because we're in the process of determining what to do with John.

I wonder if we're being sent a signal, or if this was a trial balloon, to see how people felt about Lindh/Hamid's case. But to the president, he's not an al-Qaeda thug, he's "John" or "this poor fellow" who's been "misled" into helping oppress Afghans and packing an AK-47 during a prison riot that left one American interrogator dead. I find this apparent sympathy toward this person somewhat misplaced.

Why such wishy-washy treatment of this 20 year old when we are (rightly in my thinking) taking such a hard line against all the other al-Qaederos? This "misled youth" went to Afghanistan and affilated himself with these terrorists after bin Laden attacked the USS Cole for the crime of docking in a Muslim port (an attack dear sweet John said was justified) and took up arms against US personnel after September 11th.

I'm not versed in the law well enough to know if what he's done constitutes treason, but he has unquestionably turned against his country and fought for the bad guys on the losing side of the war. At the very least he should be treated as a POW and not recieve favorable discrimination on the basis of his ethnicity.

It makes no sense to give out the impression that we're fighting a war against Middle Easterners rather terrorism. The fact that he's a cute white middle class American "kid" (acutally older than the US troops he was probably willing to shoot at) seems to be the only thing that separates him from his fellow terrorists.

Hamid was apparently led to Islam after reading Malcolm X's autobiography. But anyone who's read Malcolm/Malik El-Shabazz would know he wouldn't have approved of anything Hamid has done. What is your guess on why President Bush would go all mushy on Hamid?

-- posted by BuckyRea

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» Brian Tubbs - Re: Watch This

In response to message posted by BuckyRea:

Good comments, Bucky. Sorry I'm so late in responding. I agree that Bush's remarks during the Barbara Walters interview struck the wrong note. There is no obligation on the part of our President or anyone in this country to feel sympathy for this traitor. "John" was not abducted, drugged, and brainwashed into fighting for the Taliban. He chose his course, and should be held accountable for it.

-- posted by Brian Tubbs

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