The CIA’s power to track and kill is not warranted. Has the Daily’s editorial staff gone completely crazy in their Dec. 11 editorial, “CIA’s power to track and kill is warranted?” What has made this nation so scared that we will give up the right to trial by jury?

If we give up the notion of innocent until proven guilty, what is next? Maybe the government will take away all our guns, break into our homes and search without probable cause, and throw me in jail for writing this letter (with opinions like these, I must be a member of al-Qaida).

What happened on Sept. 11 was not pleasant, but on a global scale it cannot be considered a tragedy. The numbers below are pretty accurate, or if you don’t believe me, go to the library: 3,000 dead in the attack on the World Trade Center, 40,000 Third World children starve to death or die from simple preventable diseases each day, 100 to 3,620 civilians killed during U.S.-led bombings of Afghanistan following Sept. 11 (nobody cares enough to get an accurate count), 3,000 people worldwide die each day from AIDS and 10,000 deaths occur in the United States each year due to influenza.

The world’s most powerful nation must take the lead in ending real tragedies and injustices, rather than pursing its best interest.

I’m not particularly afraid of Iraq, but Commander in Chief Bush sure is scared. What we should truly be afraid of is our government’s foreign policy that has bred and funded “evil-doers” such as Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

The only thing I remember from high-school geography is that the place you are born has the biggest impact on your quality of life. I sure am glad I was born in the United States, where we have the right to trial by jury.

Gary LaFayette

Senior

Mechanical Engineering