I enjoy old western movies and have enjoyed some writers of western novels like Zane Grey and Elmer Kelton. One thing I like about the westerns is the justice system. If they caught a rustler or horse thief he was taken to the nearest tree and hung. There was no getting a lawyer and waiting around for months. There was no reading of the criminal’s rights or easy handling for fear of political incorrectness or action by the Civil Liberties folks.

We need some of that western justice today in the cases of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the fellow who tried to blow up the plane over Detroit, and also Nidal Malik Hasan the Fort Hood soldier killer. These two guys are not suspects, they are in fact the killers as identified by numerous eyewitnesses. For the airplane criminal, this shouldn’t be treated as a civil case. He is a terrorist and should be treated as an enemy. Both of these thugs should be hung or put before a firing squad without further ado.

Many cases do require investigation but these two are about as straight forward as you can get. Hanging may be too good for Abulmutallab and Hasan. Since they wanted to commit suicide they should have a bomb strapped to their body and then dropped from a plane into an Al Quaeda camp in Yemen. They could exit the planet as they had wanted and go to meet Allah along with some of their buddies.

Obama refuses to use the term War on Terrorism because it was used by former President Bush. I did hear him say that we are at war with Al Quaeda, so I’m happy that he finally acknowledges that we are at war with these swarthies. They should be treated like war criminals and not permitted a trial in our civilian courts with some slick lawyer trying to defend them.

Anyway, if one of these terrorist gentlemen manages to be successful and blow up a plane it will paralyze air travel and be devastating to our already weak economy. We should use any method to screen passengers and forget about racial profiling and offending someone. It’s not 80-year-old grandmothers but young swarthy types who have done all the bombing so these folks should really be frisk.

Anyway, it’s time for a little old western justice. Maybe we should put Clint Eastwood or someone like the characters in Lonesome Dove in charge of homeland security.