Mumia comments on John Walker Lindh

Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2002 10:10:01 -0700
Subject: Fwd: Mumia comments on John Walker Lindh

At 9:11 AM -0700 8/4/02, Michael Napp wrote:

JOHNNY'S REAL CRIME
[Col. Writ. 7/17/02] Copyright '02 Mumia Abu-Jamal

If one listens closely, a vast collective sigh of
relief can be heard at the news that John Walker Lindh has
pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from his service
in the military of the fallen theocracy of Afghanistan, the
Taliban.

According to published reports, the plea agreement
exposes the 21-year old Californian to a 20-year bit in the
federal pen. The government is happy, and the defense
lawyers seem pleased with the deal.

Perhaps the only disappointment can be found in the
financial offices of the news networks, where it was hoped
the Lindh trial could provide a ratings boost that
broadcasters hadn't seen since the heady days of the O.J.
trial.

According to published accounts, Lindh pled guilty to
providing support to the Taliban, and possession of
explosives. His plea, if formally accepted by the court,
would prove an evasion from charges that could've landed him
in the brig for life.

This writer thinks the plea is incorrect for another
reason: essentially, Lindh is guilty of serving in an army of
a nation the U.S. government didn't like. Period.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of Americans,
walking the streets today, who served as mercenaries (or
soldiers for hire) in the former Rhodesia, shooting, bombing
and killing Africans who were fighting against the racist
white-minority government of Ian Smith.

How many Israeli-Americans now serve in the Army of
Occupation in Palestinian lands, shooting, bombing and
killing in the name of a theocracy?

Apparently, there is no crime in serving in the
military of a nation that the U.S. government likes.

It seems to not offend U.S. sensibilities to serve in
the imperialist, expansionist, white-supremacist wars out on
the periphery of Europe.

Then comes Lindh. A young, white, idealistic youth
converts to a faith that has most of its adherents in the
darker, poorer, Third World. He learns a language, changes
his name, grows a full beard, and takes up arms to defend the
legitimate government of the land where he lives. What's the
crime? Should he have thrown down his rifle, and cast away
his faith when George W. Bush declared war? (If he had done
so, would he be alive today?)

Remember, Taliban didn't attack the towers nor the
Pentagon. According to U.S. accounts, a multinational group
(Al Quaeda) did.

"Johnny Taliban" *is* guilty -- of rejecting his
white-skin privilege, of betraying his class, and of
converting from Christianity to the Islamic faith. He *is*
guilty of fleeing the richest empire on earth, to seek
spiritual solace in the dusty, wretched backwaters of
empire. He *is* guilty of looking into the eyes of wrinkled
shiekhs in Karachi, and seeing human beings instead of
caricatures.

He *is* guilty, of being a thinking, feeling human.

Copyright 2002 Mumia Abu-Jamal

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Sharon is the REAL terrorist in the Middle East!
US OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST!
"The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my own
government." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 4, 1967