Booth's Escape Route

[wsanto]

A lot has been said on this thread with regard to the crimes of Powell and Booth. A lot of effort has been expended to defend Powell's motives and sympathize with his circumstances. And the underlying current is that he was a good and honest southern gentleman that was doing his duty and was genuinely sorry for his actions after the fact and that history has given him a bad rap by not accounting for what a good guy he was prior to or after his crime.

In my opinion, this is a very romanticized view of Powell. History has it right, in my opinion, by remembering him with contempt for his crime. He was a soldier that attemted to murder a defenseless civilain in a cold-blooded manner--in his house, surrounded by his family, and unable to defend himself by any means. Their may have been some military objective behind the crime but that does not, in my opinion, justify it.

Terrorists have a quasi-military objective in mind when they commit their crimes. But their methods are cold-blooded acts against civilians. They may be viewed by some as good god-abiding citizens who are loved by their families and friends; but when they fly airplanes into buildings, it is nothing short of cold-blooded.

Certainly Powell's crime does not rise to the atrocity of 9/11 but it is on the same continuim and should be viewed with similar contempt.