The BALL REPORTS

Who Pulls The Strings Of Justice

June 26, 2006

Where is justice for our own troops?

They capture our solders; they torture them, behead them and then brag of what they did. They kidnap contract employees, news people, they parade them on TV, then they behead them on TV. They plant bombs, use suicide bombers and kill as many people as they can... civilians, children, it doesn't matter, and then they go on the Internet and brag.

They accuse our solders of killing them. But our solders are taken prisoner by our own people, shackled and found guilty by the media before they are even charged solely on the word of the enemy. We teach our soldiers to fight during the day, they attack us at night.

My brother was a Ranger with the 75th Infantry, Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol. He was killed in action in Vietnam on his fourth or fifth tour. He told stories and wrote home about some of the missions (Hawkeye harass and kill) he was sent on where he was told that if his mission was discovered by our government, he and his team could be tried for murder.

He had more than 60 confirmed kills credited to him and was awarded three Silver Stars for his actions. He also earned the highest South Vietnam medals and many other U.S. medals including the Purple Heart for his final mission. All this was for doing his job, “killing people.” He was in a war.

Our kids are in a war. We don't always know who the enemy is or where they are. The enemy uses remote devices to kill people. The enemy hides in Islam Holy places, civilian homes, hospitals and schools.

An Iraqi accuses our solders of wrongdoing and we take our solders prisoner. What do the Iraqis do about insurgents killing innocents and putting it on TV?

We are in a war, we need to fight the war. Rather than allow Arabs to reward families of suicide bombers, we should track down the families of these indiscriminate murderers and make it public that any immediate family member of a suicide bomber will be put in prison a minimum of five years for each civilian killed. We need to treat them as they treat us, but we should be more humane when we kill back.

GUEST: LEE B. THIBADEAU
San Marcos
Thibadeau is a former San Marcos City Council member.

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