I have a couple of questions about Walker... Before September 11, how clear do you suppose it was to him (or most of us Americans) that El Queda and/or bin Laden were enemies of the United States? Even knowing that they were behind previous acts of terrorism, could he have not honestly believed that he was joining a military force whose goal was to maintain a fundamentalist rule Afghanistan against the Northern Alliance? Was the United States clearly an ally of the Northern Alliance prior to September 11th, so that by joining its enemy, one would thus be committing oneself to fighting the United States? I have a very hard time arguing that this guy should have reached that conclusion prior to September 11, when he apparently joined the Taliban forces.
After September 11, I would not be at all surprised if he did not receive reliable information. For one thing, he was in Afghanistan, where it's undoubtedly hard to know what's going on elsewhere, especially if you're under the Taliban's rule. How much news, honestly delivered, would have been going to Taliban fighters in the field? I sure don't know, but that would be something I'd be trying to find out from those that Walker was fighting with. If it turns out that it was common knowledge among them that their own organization was behind the Sept. 11 attacks and that they were fighting the U.S. in Afghanistan, then it seems that Walker's failure at that point to throw down his weapons or renounce his citizenship are grounds for prosecution. But if he didn't have adequate knowledge of the world events, how can we prosecute him for treason or related offenses? At worst, it seems like there might be something to charge him with in terms of taking up arms in someone else's war, but I don't know how U.S. law treats such mercenary behavior when our country isn't involved, or the subject simply didn't know that the U.S. was involved. On the other hand, with all the leaflets dropped, aircraft, etc., perhaps one could make a strong case that Walker would have had to be incredibly dumb not to realize that at some point, his countrymen had joined the battle on the other side. Sure is hard to know from here, though. Certainly he knows now. Nick
