Socialist Viewpoint

If one listens closely, a vast collective sigh of relief can be heard at the news that John Walker Lindh has pleaded guilty to several charges stemming from his service in the military of the fallen theocracy of Afghanistan, the Taliban. According to published reports, the plea agreement exposes the 21-year old Californian to a 20-year bit in the federal pen. The government is happy, and the defense lawyers seem pleased with the deal.

Perhaps the only disappointment can be found in the financial offices of the news networks, where it was hoped the Lindh trial could provide a ratings boost that broadcasters hadn’t seen since the heady days of the O.J. trial. According to published accounts, Lindh pled guilty to providing support to the Taliban, and possession of explosives. His plea, if formally accepted by the court, would prove an evasion from charges that could’ve landed him in the brig for life.

This writer thinks the plea is incorrect for another reason: essentially, Lindh is guilty of serving in an army of a nation the U.S. government didn’t like. Period. There are hundreds, if not thousands of Americans, walking the streets today, who served as mercenaries (or soldiers for hire) in the former Rhodesia, shooting, bombing and killing Africans who were fighting against the racist white-minority government of Ian Smith.

How many Israeli-Americans now serve in the Army of Occupation in Palestinian lands, shooting, bombing and killing in the name of a theocracy? Apparently, there is no crime in serving in the military of a nation that the U.S. government likes.

It seems to not offend U.S. sensibilities to serve in the imperialist, expansionist, white-supremacist wars out on the periphery of Europe.

Then comes Lindh. A young, white, idealistic youth converts to a faith that has most of its adherents in the darker, poorer, Third World. He learns a language, changes his name, grows a full beard, and takes up arms to defend the legitimate government of the land where he lives. What’s the crime? Should he have thrown down his rifle, and cast away his faith when George W. Bush declared war? (If he had done so, would he be alive today?)

Remember, Taliban didn’t attack the towers nor the Pentagon. According to U.S. accounts, a multinational group (Al Quaeda) did.

“Johnny Taliban” is guilty—of rejecting his white-skin privilege, of betraying his class, and of converting from Christianity to the Islamic faith. He is guilty of fleeing the richest empire on earth, to seek spiritual solace in the dusty, wretched backwaters of empire. He is guilty of looking into the eyes of wrinkled sheikhs in Karachi, and seeing human beings instead of caricatures.

He is guilty of being a thinking, feeling human.