{"id":3980,"date":"2007-10-17T11:30:08","date_gmt":"2007-10-17T18:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/17\/editors-rave-over-my-presidents-right-to-kill-article\/"},"modified":"2007-10-17T11:30:08","modified_gmt":"2007-10-17T18:30:08","slug":"editors-rave-over-my-presidents-right-to-kill-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2007\/10\/17\/editors-rave-over-my-presidents-right-to-kill-article\/","title":{"rendered":"Editors Rave over my “President’s Right to Kill” article"},"content":{"rendered":"

The good folks at the Future of Freedom Foundation<\/a><\/strong> kindly forwarded\u00c2\u00a0some of the lively responses they received\u00c2\u00a0 after sending out\u00c2\u00a0my op-ed, “Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners<\/a><\/strong>?”<\/p>\n

I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure all these editors decided not to publish the article.<\/p>\n

Here’s a response from Bob Weir,\u00c2\u00a0 the executive editor of the News Connection (Texas):<\/p>\n

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. <\/em><\/p>\n

I will never understand people like you who live the American lifestyle with all its bounty, while taking every opportunity to trash it.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em>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<\/strong>. <\/em>Sadly, your parents must have done a lousy job of
\nraising you because you bear all the signs of a child that was never taught to appreciate his good fortune.<\/em><\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 ****<\/p>\n

The Guthrie Center Newspapers sent an indignant one line response to the piece:<\/p>\n

It’s not Bush — it’ President Bush, just like President Clinton, President
\nBush, President Reagan, President Carter, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well,\u00c2\u00a0maybe that’s why Mr. Editor didn’t like the piece.\u00c2\u00a0 (That particular email did not include a name). *****<\/p>\n

The Addison Eagle News and Reporter<\/em> in Middlebury, Vermont, replied:<\/p>\n

What a stupid, naive premise here. Presidents don’t kill foreigners (unless
\nthey are secret agents although I never heard of one stalking a foreigner
\nand shooting them.)<\/em><\/p>\n

The real question you should really care about as an American citizen
\nis: Should foreigners be entitled to kill Americans? Thankfully we have a
\nPresident who doesn’t think so, after 9\/11.*****<\/em><\/p>\n

If George W.\u00c2\u00a0 is ever indicted for war crimes, he should certainly try to stack the jury with editors from this paper.<\/p>\n

Bill Johnston, the editor of the Collinsville News<\/em>, also successfully resisted the article’s allure:<\/p>\n

Didn’t have to read very far in your “op-ed” to know that you obviously
\ndon’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about….<\/em><\/p>\n

“Seems to be the attitude” . . . what a comment. You don’t have a clue what
\nthe attitude of President Bush and his advisors is or ever will be.
\nNeedless to say, your ridiculous effort at some sort of anti-Bush rhetoric
\nwill never see the light of print in this publication and I am hopeful in
\nvery few other newspapers around this country….<\/em><\/p>\n

By the way, if you’ve got evidence of President Bush breaking the law, file
\nthe proper motion in court….<\/em><\/p>\n

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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The good folks at the Future of Freedom Foundation kindly forwarded\u00c2\u00a0some of the lively responses they received\u00c2\u00a0 after sending out\u00c2\u00a0my 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,\u00c2\u00a0 the executive editor of the News […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[676],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-3980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-antiwar-movement"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3980"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}