Two-part quiz on rights

The American people must ask themselves and our leaders two questions. Firstly, during World War II, did America act immorally, dictatorially or improperly when it denied millions of captured German soldiers and illegal combatants access to lawyers, denied them Miranda rights, imprisoned them for indeterminate times and asked (without legal counsel) questions such as: “Where were you trained, who trained with you, what was your mission, who are your superiors?”

I don’t believe one person would answer that question in the affirmative. Therefore, the second question is, then why do we read Miranda rights to foreign-illegal combatants, such as the one who recently attempted to blow up a jetliner over Detroit?

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab has obtained a lawyer, and now we will never be able to ask him any of the questions listed above. Don’t you believe it would be useful, in a war such as our global terror war, to know if Abdulmutallab was trained alongside dozens of other individuals each assigned a similar mission?

As long as we fool ourselves into treating this war as a series of criminal acts, we will risk serious consequences. Foreign warriors should receive Geneva Convention rights – nothing more, nothing less.

Patty Przybylski

Mica