We knew it was coming to this. What � have � you � done � now?

Signed,
The National Association of High School Assistant Principals

I am not going to jail. I'm thinking about jail.

The popular press was filled, yesterday morning, with photos of Cindy Sheehan grinning and waving as she was oh-so-gently placed under arrest for having refused to move away from a White House entrance. Crowds of supporters cheered as she was lifted into a paddy wagon all of which was dutifully recorded by the media.

It was also widely reported that PFC Lynndie England was convicted of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act, all related to the Abu Ghraib prison case. The principal evidence against her were the infamous photographs, the most egregious of which was the photo of her holding a strap tied as a leash around a naked detainee's neck.

The third side of this very odd triangle is Saddam Hussein whose trial for murder is scheduled to begin in about three weeks.

He will be tried for one instance of murder but, according to Princeton University professor Gary Bass writing in the International Herald Tribune, not for the:

"larger atrocities on which he was arraigned in July 2004: killing political rivals, crushing the Shiite uprising in southern Iraq in 1991, invading Kuwait in 1990 and waging the genocidal Anfal campaign against the Kurds in 1988, including gassing Kurdish villagers at Halabja."

If Mrs. Sheehan had been arrested during Saddam's time, I guarantee you she would not have been smiling, nor would there be a crowd of well-wishers because they would not have wanted to join her rumbling to someplace like Abu Ghraib prison.

And if Mrs. Sheehan had been taken to someplace like Abu Ghraib prison under Saddam's rule she would either never have returned at all, or would have returned having been raped, maimed, or both.

If Ms. England had been at Abu Ghraib during the reign of Saddam, it is far more likely she would have been at the noose end of the leash, not the handle end. And it is almost certain that at no time would she have posed for photographs with both a smirk and a cigarette dangling from her lips.

Americans are allowed, within a very wide latitude, to protest against those things they dislike. The First Amendment to the Constitution forbids Congress from passing any law which would abridge "the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

That is what protects Cindy Sheehan as she carries on her protests against the war in Iraq. You don't have to like it, you don't have to agree with it. You have to like the fact that she can do it.

It is ironic, of course, that the very protections she is - and will continue to be - provided didn't exist in Iraq until Saddam was overthrown and would not be provided starting tomorrow if the US troops were to be withdrawn according to her wishes.

The terrorists and thugs who continue to make life miserable for millions of Iraqis would not lead one to believe that an open society is atop the post-war agenda for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Not unless your definition of freedom extends to suicide bombs and beheadings.

It is a function of our particular definition of freedom that we defend it vigorously wherever it exists, or wants to exist, and we punish harshly those - from Pfc. Lynndie England on up- who would seek to take it from others.

So, smile on, Mrs. Sheehan. Your right to protest is safe.

In America.

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Herald Tribune piece, a GREAT Mullfoto, and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

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Copyright © 2005 Richard A. Galen

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