Thomas Sowell’s column (Globe, Nov. 18) is a perfect example of the absurdity of the far right’s attitude toward fighting terrorism. On the one hand, he says that acts of terrorism are war; on the other, that terrorists are not warriors and must not be treated as such.
On the one hand, he says that we must not put terrorists on trial, because that will make other countries think about allying with al-Qaida. On the other, he screams at the Democrats for worrying about what other countries think.
Sowell has often written that “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste,” meaning that Democrats are exploiting the economic crisis to expand government power over the economy. Even if that is true, Sowell’s faction has tried for eight years to use the crisis of the 9/11 attacks as an excuse for vastly greater government powers than Obama has ever sought. Red tape is a hobble on our economy, but an executive branch that can secretly imprison, torture or kill anybody it chooses, unchecked, is a far greater threat to freedom.
If Sowell really believed in limited government, much less in Obama’s supposed tyrannical ambitions, then he would never dare consent to grant Obama such unlimited powers; obviously, a would-be dictator would abuse such powers for his evil ends. But of course, Sowell’s fear of tyranny is phony. He thinks Democrats are too squeamish or afraid to use his kind of tools against his own side. So, Sowell is willing to entrust those tools to Obama until a conservative true believer reaches the White House. Then, Sowell hopes, America will defeat terrorism by use of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and execution, which can be used afterward, as they have always been, against “traitorous” citizens.
Daniel Baker
Joplin
