Commentary: Crazy Or Evil?
It is becoming harder and harder for everyone - from government prosecutors to the media - to downplay what motivated Washington, D.C. snipers Lee Boyd Malvo and John Muhammad.
The official line is that they terrorized the nation's capital last year for money - plain old extortion. But now we know the money was not for a place on the Riviera, but was to be used to build a perfect Islamic society.
Now defense attorneys, trying to prove that Malvo was insane when he murdered an FBI analyst, have introduced jail house drawings by the killer.
Rather than proving insanity, the drawings are further evidence that Malvo and Muhammad are Islamic jihadists - probably acting on their own - but jihadists nonetheless.
One drawing is of the White House in the crosshairs of a sniper's scope. Malvo has written on it, "Welcome to the new war. You are not safe anywhere at anytime. September 11th we will ensure will look like a picnic to you." On another drawing of one of his heroes, Osama bin Laden, he writes, "We did not start this flame, we merely picked up the torch. You shall all die! Every last one." In drawing after drawing, Malvo returns to the theme of jihad.
The defense attorneys believe that these rantings prove insanity. But what they really prove is that Malvo and Muhammad answered the repeated calls of bin Laden for "believers" to rise up and kill the infidel - you and me.
They are proof not of insanity, but of an evil that will not stop until it has been defeated.
For more information about Gary Bauer and the American Values organization, visit their