Officials announced today that radical Islamic imam and high-ranking al Qaeda member, Anwar al-Awlaki, was killed by a US drone attack in Yemen. The dead man was born in New Mexico, making him a joint Yemen-United States citizen. He had lived in the US for much of his adult life, mostly the time he was in college here.
Yes, he went to Colorado State, where he earned his BS, San Diego State, where he earned his Master’s and George Washington University where he started working on his doctorate degree. He wasn’t just some brainwashed terrorist from a dusty village nobody ever heard of. This man was smart, cold, calculating and violently opposed to the United States of America. He was one of the biggest terrorist recruiters in the world, and an influential leader in the terrorist war against freedom.
He would have gleefully killed, or ordered the killing of, you, me and our children to further his radical Islamic cause. People like him need to be eradicated. The question is, how?
Being that al-Awlaki was a United States citizen, and never went to trial, Ron Paul has come out and blasted the killing, calling it an, “assassination.”
“Al-Awlaki was born here, he’s an American citizen, he was never tried or charged for any crimes,” Paul said. “To start assassinating American citizens without charges – we should think very seriously about this.”
Talk about torn. Ron Paul is exactly, 100% correct … but I hate it that he is. It is a terribly slippery slope when we kill our own citizens without trial … even the Iranians give Christian pastors a (mock) trial before they condemn them. However, this guy was pure evil in a way that would embarrass even Barack Obama himself.
This is a tough one, so think about it hard before you slam Ron Paul for his stance. There is no question that our rights in this country are under attack, and, frankly, this is another example, even if you (like me) agree with the action taken. Under our laws and the Constitution, he did have a right to a fair trial, but on the other hand, capturing him might well have been impossible, leaving him free to do the work of evil for many years.
Once our rights are taken away, it is very hard to get them back. As citizens of the United States of America, we all have a right to a fair trial. Once the government starts selectively applying rights to one group of people and not another, we are in real, serious trouble. That is Ron Paul’s point, and there really can be no argument with that. We’d like to think it would never get to where one group has certain rights that another group does not … oh, except for those “hate crime” laws, and those racial hiring quotas, because those are OK, right?
Being a purist is tough, I really admire Paul for it. He is not like other politicians who flip-flop and change their own history according to the latest trends. It’s refreshing to see someone with firm principles that cannot be shaken by polls or campaign contributions.
