"We can't kill our way to a peaceful tomorrow."

This is Anna Allison. As she was.

On September 11, 2001, she was in an airplane that was crashed into one of the towers of the World Trade Center.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed that September day by the acts of the terrorists. They left behind untold numbers who knew them, miss them, cared for them, loved them.  They left fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, grandparents, nieces and nephews, classmates, co-workers, friends, neighbors, even strangers who grieve, have grieved, will grieve.

Among those was Anna Allison's husband, Blake.

Blake is among 10 family members, chosen by lot, to go to Guantanamo Bay and witness the arraignment, before a military commission, of the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and of four others the government says are terrorists.

The government's hope, its desire, its commitment, and its full expectation is to get the commission to say they should be killed and then to kill them.

Blake wants to save their lives.

Josh Margolin, writing in the NY Post.

He said his opposition to execution is rooted in his Episcopalian faith.
“When Martin Luther was being asked to recant by the hierarchy of the Roman church for all his Protestant actions, he said, ‘Here I stand. I can’t do otherwise.’
“That’s the way I feel. First and foremost, I don’t think it’s right to take a life. It’s grounded in my religious faith. The New Testament is very clear about this.”

Blake has talked about this with the other 9, er, lucky witnesses. They all want the 5 to be killed.

I know they’re sincere in their beliefs,” he said.
“They want what they perceive as justice for their loved ones. I would never tell anybody in my position what they should feel.”

This is the New York Post. A newspaper that can't imagine a presumption of innocence, or even uncertainty.  Margolin writes that Blake wants

to try to save the lives of the al-Qaeda monsters who planned the murder

and explains that he's in Guantanamo for

the arraignment of confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his evil accomplices.

When what purports to be a news report characterizes the accused (and at this point, that's all they are, rhetorical hyperbole from the Post or elsewhere aside) as "monsters" and "evil," you know not to expect much objectivity. But maybe it's the Post's absolute amazement that accounts for the story.

“The public needs to know there are family members out there who do not hold the view that these men should be put to death,” Allison told The Post.

And then Blake Allison said the line that gave this post it's title.

We can't kill our way to a peaceful tomorrow.