"I, for one, am willing to forgo certain freedoms to win this war"

[derby378]

Even today, I still find this mindset hard to believe. This is the opinion of one FReeper-type on CNN responding to allegations of torture and other human rights abuses in the Jose Padilla case:

Chris and John, we are in a war. This war is unlike any war that we have ever fought. It will be lengthy. There are no clear cut enemy or identified battle lines. It is a war against a foe who is committed to completely destroying us if possible. To them, we are a godless people only fit to die because, for the most part, we are not a fundamentalist islamic nation. Padilla was a soldier in that war against this country. He is a traitor. The people that we are fighting will use every freedom against us. I, for one, am willing to forgo certain freedoms to win this war. Padilla was prosecuted with evidence collected from intercepted communications. It took only two days of deliberations to convict him. Without these tools, he probably wouldn't have been convicted. I fear that people think that all we have to do is go about our own business and we will be safe and secure once more. They think that all we have to do is bring our troops home and all will be fine. The people we are fighting want us to do just that. They aren't about to quit until we are wiped off the face of this earth by any means possible. If we forget the lessons of 9/11, we will certainly have many more days like 9/11 to come from people like Padilla. I say it is a travesty that people like you have forgotten the horrors of 9/11 so easily and so willingly accept people like Padilla as if they are some form of a martyer. Remember, the freedoms you cherish are the very freedoms that our foe so deeply dispises and won't allow in their fundamentalist countries. If you disagree, just take one look at the two South Koreans who were tortured and then excuted by the Taliban for the crime of being in the wrong place at the wrong time practicing the wrong religion. Now, that is the travesty that we should be crying about.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/16/padilla.verdict/index.html

[spanone]

1. U,S.= 0 Terrorists= 1

[derby378]

2. And bin Laden, if he's still alive and on the loose, is laughing his ass off...

Provided he's not already dead or holed up in an NSA "black site" in Qatar or at Groom Lake, I'm sure he considers this freakin' hilarious.

[spindoctor]

3. Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety...

... deserve neither Liberty nor Safety - Benjamin Franklin (not).