The good folks at the Future of Freedom Foundation kindly forwarded some of the lively responses they received after sending out my op-ed, “Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?”
I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure all these editors decided not to publish the article.
Here’s a response from Bob Weir, the executive editor of the News Connection (Texas):
Were we right to kill “foreigners” in other wars? Were the Germans, Italians and Japanese not foreigners? Adhering to your definition, the only wars we’d be able to engage in would be civil wars. By the way, do you have anything good to say about the United States? Your support of Iran, a dictatorship that has been proven to be responsible for the deaths of countless American soldiers, tells me all I need to know about your hatred of your own country.
I will never understand people like you who live the American lifestyle with all its bounty, while taking every opportunity to trash it. If you have so much affection for Iran and its ayatollah-style government, why do you stay here? Could it be because you have freedom here? Could it be because if you lived in that tyrannical state and opened your mouth against the government you’d be stoned to death in the public square? You’re like the spoiled brat who has all the comforts of life, yet hates the parents who provide it for him. Sadly, your parents must have done a lousy job of
raising you because you bear all the signs of a child that was never taught to appreciate his good fortune.   ****
The Guthrie Center Newspapers sent an indignant one line response to the piece:
It’s not Bush — it’ President Bush, just like President Clinton, President
Bush, President Reagan, President Carter, etc.
Well, maybe that’s why Mr. Editor didn’t like the piece. (That particular email did not include a name). *****
The Addison Eagle News and Reporter in Middlebury, Vermont, replied:
What a stupid, naive premise here. Presidents don’t kill foreigners (unless
they are secret agents although I never heard of one stalking a foreigner
and shooting them.)
The real question you should really care about as an American citizen
is: Should foreigners be entitled to kill Americans? Thankfully we have a
President who doesn’t think so, after 9/11.*****
If George W. is ever indicted for war crimes, he should certainly try to stack the jury with editors from this paper.
Bill Johnston, the editor of the Collinsville News, also successfully resisted the article’s allure:
Didn’t have to read very far in your “op-ed” to know that you obviously
don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about….
“Seems to be the attitude” . . . what a comment. You don’t have a clue what
the attitude of President Bush and his advisors is or ever will be.
Needless to say, your ridiculous effort at some sort of anti-Bush rhetoric
will never see the light of print in this publication and I am hopeful in
very few other newspapers around this country….
By the way, if you’ve got evidence of President Bush breaking the law, file
the proper motion in court….
My hunch is that Bill Johnston has not spent a lot of time reading about the State Secrets doctrine and how the Bush administration continually invokes it to sway judges to throw out court cases involving brazen and proven government wrongdoing…