Walker’s Future
Holding him accountable.

By NR Editors
From “The Week,” December 31, 2001, issue, of National Review

hould John Walker be tried by civilian courts, by military tribunals, or by the Afghans whose country he helped to oppress? An argument can be made that, by waging war on the United States, he has foresworn his American citizenship, and should be left to the tender mercies of Afghan justice. But if his primary loyalty was to al Qaeda, then he should be treated as pirates once were — as an outlaw, worthy of summary execution. Meanwhile, Walker is being tried in the court of public opinion, conservatives fastening on his post-hippie Northern California roots, liberals insisting that not every dim bulb named after John Lennon wages war on the United States. Some traitors, from Benedict Arnold to Robert Hanssen, betray their country out of greed; others, like the Rosenbergs, out of conviction. Even as the Rosenbergs were extreme but predictable products of Communist opinion, so Walker is a grotesque but unsurprising product of his milieu. But more important than any milieu are a man's nearest and dearest, and more important than they is his own free will. Even as John Walker's parents bear a particular responsibility for their ignorant and feckless raising of their son, so he is responsible — and must pay — for the life he chose.