My son, the right-wing / left-wing terrorist

James P. writes:

There is an interesting contrast between Anders Breivik’s father and the father of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh. To refresh your memory, Lindh was a northern California boy who converted to Islam, studied in a Pakistani madrassa, went to Afghanistan in May 2001 to fight for the Taliban, and was captured shortly after the US invaded Afghanistan in late 2001. In an American court in 2002, Lindh accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to 20 years without parole.

How did Lindh’s father react? In December 2001, when the memories of 9/11 were fresh in everyone’s minds, US troops had recently started suffering casualties at the hands of the Taliban, and nobody really knew what Lindh had done, his father gave an interview on CNN. Lindh’s father said he was proud of his son’s “devoted” study of Islam, claimed his 20-year-old son was “really not much more than a boy,” said, “we want to give him a big hug,” and said he would gently chastise his son “for not getting my permission, because I would not have given him permission to go to Afghanistan” (Lindh was an adult male of military age and of course needed no such permission). Since 2001, Lindh’s father has persistently denied that his son did anything wrong, excoriated the Bush administration, and insisted that his son’s “pointless” incarceration should end before he serves his full sentence. Lindh’s father has never expressed any remorse that his son fought for a vicious group that has killed (and continues to kill) many Americans.

Meanwhile, Breivik’s father says he is ashamed of his son and thinks his son should have killed himself. If your son is a left-wing terrorist and traitor who unquestionably knew what he was doing, you absolve him of blame and crusade on his behalf. If your son is a right-wing terrorist who is clearly insane, you disown him and urge him to kill himself. What a contrast!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 27, 2011 10:10 AM | Send