The World Socialist Website of 2/9/02 has a good analysis of the case of John Walker Lindh, "The Political Vendetta Against John Walker Lindh Continues" by Jerry Isaacs at:
www.wsws.org/articles/2002/feb2002/lind-f09.shtml
As his attorney, James Brosnahan stated, "They have brought up the cannon to shoot the mouse." Lindh was clearly and viciously tortured by the US military and denied a lawyer. Thus, any "confession" must be thrown out. Further, Lindh has only been charged with conspiracy as the US has not declared war on Afghanistan. As the labor lawyer, Clarence Darrow stated, conspiracy charges should have been thrown out with the thumbscrew and the rack as they exact a maximum penalty without proving an overt act. I urge everyone to read the article to see what lengths the US military will go to torture a person, all paid for with our tax dollars, and all done in the name of fighting for democracy. This is fascism, not democracy.

This is clearly a case of scapegoating not just to silence dissent as the article states, but also, as the article states, "it is being used to conceal who is really responsible for the tragic events in New York and Washington." The evidence is overwhelming that this was a Reichstag Fire to perpetrate fascism at home and blood for oil wars abroad.

As to Marin County, a small suburb of San Francisco on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, for the majority who are upper middle class, it is no different from any other upper middle class community, such as the kind in which George War Bush has always lived. Before the Vietnam War, it was rock-ribbed Eisenhower-Nixon Republican. Since the Vietnam War, the 186,000 adults of Marin County, of whom some 145,000 are registered to vote, they are about 50%, Democrat, 25% Republican, 3% Green Party and the rest either the smaller parties or no party. Marin County has about 200,000 people. See the California Secretary of State website at: www.ss.ca.gov/elections/ror/county_02-01.pdf

Like the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area, and much of the nation, Marin County has a thriving a peace community. There is also a workingclass in Marin County. John Walker Lindh is an individual who made a decision to study one religion. As far as I am concerned, all religions are superstition and no educated person has any business believing in any religion. Lindh is just another kid who went out into the big wide world without sufficient understanding of that world and is now being used as a political scapegoat for an extremely reactionary and criminal administration, which clearly despises any political thought to the left of Hitler's ideology.

I urge the well-to-do parents who may be reading this to take their children to the poor communities of the United States so they can see poverty close up. If possible, have them work with some community organization that serves the poor so they can hear the stories and see the daily lives of the poor. That will end the romanticism that upper middle class young people sometimes have about people living in poor societies. Law students usually volunteer their services at legal aid societies and tenant organizations, and that certainly wakes them up to the realities of this world.

Meanwhile, it is mandatory that all scapegoating of John Walker Lindh end for he is a victim of circumstances and now a victim of a rigged judicial system. The louder we protest, the more defensive War Bush will become because there is no solid case against Lindh. Lindh needs to go to college and to work with the poor right here in the USA. I am sure that will do him and all the rest of us a great deal of good. Just remember, if the government can get away with attacking Lindh, it can get away with attacking anyone who opposes the warmongers. Three cheers for all peaceniks, socialists, civil libertarians, immigrants, and the workingclass.