Dear Editor:

The left wing of the Democrat party are once again frothing at the mouth. They apparently want to make it a crime to be a Republican. Our apologist-in-chief, Prince Obama the Obsequious, in a rare attempt at rationality, said a few days ago that he thought it would be counter productive to try to prosecute officials of the previous administration for authorizing “torture” of al Quaeda bigwigs in our custody. He actually made some sense. It seemed too good to be true – and, of course it was. It seems that our president’s backbone, which turned to spaghetti in front of the Saudi monarch, should be made of sterner stuff. Now he thinks he’ll leave the decision to prosecute members of the Bush administration up to his Attorney General. (Pontius Pilate washes his hands of it?)

Contrast, if you will, the following two situations:

1 - It is the aftermath of the deadliest attack ever carried out on American soil. In New York, two gleaming towers have collapsed into a smoldering pit, turning more than two thousand human beings into unrecognizable shards of protoplasm. We have managed to capture some of the people who helped plan this attack. Interrogators seek legal advice about what they can or can not do to extract information from these scumbags. Advice is given, and “harsh” methods are used. (They were mean to the poor mass murderers whose avowed goal was the killing of as many Americans as they could) These harsh methods were apparently successful, because there have been no more attacks.

2 - Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Four teenagers armed to the teeth board a merchant vessel flying the American flag. They take the captain hostage. These pirates have not taken blood oaths to kill as many Americans as they can. They are armed robbers in pursuit of money. After a few days our bold president finally decides to let the military handle the problem. Three young men have their heads blown off.

Please do not think that I disagree with President Obama’s handling of the pirate situation. He did the right thing. In fact I think action should have been taken even sooner. However, I am stunned by the duplicitous irony. The rabid rabble of Democrats calling for the heads of the Bush administration are “shocked and disgusted” because CIA interrogators pretended to drown some terrorist thugs to loosen their tongues. They were not drowned. They were not beaten to death. And, it seems, they sang like little birdies, and American lives were saved.

The current president, he of the “let’s talk with them” persuasion, authorized the military to be judge, jury, and executioner in the matter of the Somali pirates. He did not authorize them to pretend to drown the pirates. He did not authorize them to deprive the pirates of sleep or threaten them with dogs or insect larvae. He authorized the military to shoot them to death. And they did. Good for him and good for them. However…. if Patrick Leahy is disturbed about terrorist being waterboarded and slapped around, why is he not disturbed about the instantaneous snuffing out of the lives of three Somali teenagers? Could it be the party to which the president belongs?

The United States has prided itself over the years for the periodic peaceful transfer of executive and legislative power enabled by free elections. George Soros, Pat Leahy and the rest of the dingbat wing of the Democrat party seem to want to emulate dictatorships in which the previous administration spends its retirement in prison cells or coffins. Our founding Fathers must be squirming in their graves.

Tom Weeks

LaGrange