Courts must preside over savagery

Archie McPhee’s October 18 letter [“Monday would be speaking German”] was great. It attacked and destroyed the idealist liberal fantasy of a George Bush critic.

Not only did Archie remind us that a civilized society is governed by law, enforced by legal justice, not governed by vengeful violence, his letter reminded readers of the terrible murders of the “innocent” American civil engineers who were employed by Blackwater Corp. in Iraq.

Archie recounted how the engineers were attacked, tortured, murdered, then their bodies dragged and hung off a bridge as a statement. This savage act never gained retribution in the legal courts; no Iraqi was ever convicted. Yet now, the liberal media relentlessly attacks Blackwater Corp. for the responsibility of the deaths of 14 Iraqis. Does the media as a whole understand “cause and effect” in a lawless state?

It should be obvious by now that in Iraq people take the law into their own hands when a legal system doesn’t preside. The Iraqi court system is contemptible and is incompetent to allow civil engineers, who were there to “rebuild,” only to be brutally murdered, their assassins to remain free.

I applaud Archie’s letter, and him, for reminding us that murder must be abrogated by law, not revenged by violence; for reminding us that a valid enforced legal court system must have power to preside over detestable savagery thus to install peace and civilization.

Debra Dunbar