Uncivilized murder

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Peninsula readers' letters: October 1
From Daily News Group readers Posted: 09/30/2011 06:04:25 PM PDTUpdated: 10/01/2011 12:58:21 AM PDT
Uncivilized murder
Dear Editor: The United States has confirmed the killing of the radical Yemeni-American cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, in northern Yemen. "If you are somebody that believes the President of the United States has the power to order your fellow citizens murdered, assassinated, killed without a shred of due process ... then you are really declaring yourself to be as pure of an authoritarian as it gets." (Constitutional scholar Glenn Greenwald) I thought what we did with the Germans after World War II was the right thing. They were put on trial and given their day in court, and a historical record was created and the message was sent that this is what will happen to you if you commit mass murder, we believe even the most heinous person should have their day in court because we're going to try to be civilized even though they're uncivilized, even though they're barbaric. We're not going to be that way.That used to be a standard we tried to aspire to, or at least say that we aspired to it.Ted Rudow III, MAPalo Alto