In response to Lex (on Lord Haw-Haw)

Submitted by Kierkegaard (United States), Aug 17, 2005 at 20:09

As I recall, the person in question was a citizen of the Republic of Ireland carrying a British passport. Even though he was given honorary German citizenship, that certainly weighed negatively rather than positively in the proceedings against him.

A less benign regime than Churchill's might have hanged P.G. Wodehouse as well.

I find Mr. Pipes' article utterly to the point, as I do in most, though not in all, cases. However, I should like to point out that enforcement of treason laws has never been popular in any age or during any war; certainly during our own War of Independence most of the Whig party in Britain, including the poem William Blake, would have qualified as traitors. The reason that Lindh wasn't prosecuted for treason was quite simple; neither our laudable attack on the Taliban nor our equally overdue overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a legally declared war, because Congress is far too fearful of polls to ever entertain such a step without a considerable pretext. In the modern world, of course, such a pretext would likely render them a body without actual souls.

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