Environmental Sabotage and Terrorism

Several convicted members of the Earth Liberation Front will be sentenced soon. They’ve confessed to about twenty arsons all over the Western states. Their targets included lumber mill offices, meat packing plants, research facilities and an SUV dealership.

They're facing three to 16 years for arson and conspiracy. But prosecutors want to add a Terrorism “enhancement” to their sentences. WTF???

This terrorism enhancement might or might not add time to their jail sentences. Mostly it’ll guarantee that they get sent to a tougher prison where they're more likely to be raped and assaulted. Judge Ann Aiken is considering the prosecution’s request for terrorism charges.

Terrorism??? Who's the dickwad that came up with that bright idea? Purposely violating a law that you disagree with — to change the law or to make a point — has been an American tradition. And when you knowingly break a law you have to understand that if you get caught you'll take the penalty.

Nobody is saying these people aren't guilty. Whatever the penalties are for arson and conspiracy, that’s what they should get. Nothing more; nothing less. Nobody was killed or injured by any of their fires.

This is a generalization, but the people who consider the Earth Liberation Front to be terrorists are most likely conservatives; probably the same conservatives who are so gung ho about our Global War on Terror. So think about it. If you want to keep up the paranoia and urgency of our war against Islamic terrorists, the last thing you want to do is dilute and trivialize the concept of “terror.” If somebody who sets fire to an empty office is a terrorist, what do you call the person who flies an airliner into the World Trade Center?