For those of you wondering, I was out of town this week and was not able to put together an article — or a coherent one anyway.

It is a well-known fact that the Charleston Gazette is liberal. Throughout the years they have unabashedly promoted their opinion so zealously that far left papers like the New York Times or Los Angeles Times seem like “ditto-heads” in comparison. After years of bias, the Gazette now shares nothing in common with most West Virginians.

For instance, they heralded the retirement of, as they termed it, “ultraconservative” Senator Steve Harrison as “good news.” Completely ignoring his years of faithful service, a spotless record, and the fights Harrison has led for the people of West Virginia, the Gazette chose to sum up his tenure in the legislature as “years of trying to ostracize gays and revoke women’s right to choose.” West Virginians are well aware of his “years of trying to ostracize gays and revoke women’s right to choose” as well as his fights for lower taxes, less government, and ethics and voted him into office every time he ran because of it.

While Harrison may see the Gazette’s condemnation as a feather in his cap (you are known by your enemies after all), the Gazette’s biased reporting and inability to relate to West Virginia is disturbing.

Ideological differences should be encouraged in our democracy, but the Gazette’s May 15th edition went too far. They printed a guest editorial from Dr. Iammarino, a pathology professor emeritus at West Virginia University, which says the United States should “respect” al-Qaida. Yes, Osama Bin Laden’s organization that everyone agrees is responsible for the tragedy of 9/11, oppression of Muslims everywhere, torture and murder should be, according to the Gazette, respected.

Iammarino wrote, “Someone in authority must realize we are in a war of ideas, for the minds and hearts of humanity. What we once stood for — and not what we are standing for now — is a level of respect for everyone. Would I include al-Qaida and other radical Muslims? Yes.”

Hmm… Let me flip over to the word “respect” in my dictionary:

1. Admire (someone or something) deeply, as a result of their abilities, qualities, or achievements;

2. Have due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of;

3. Avoid harming or interfering with. (Oxford American Dictionary)

All agree that Al-Qaida was the force that attacked us on 9/11, but the Gazette wishes that rather than kill them, we “admire deeply, as a result of their abilities, qualities, or achievements.” We have seen their ability and we have felt their achievement. As an organization that kills, tortures, and maims innocent people in ruthless terror, we know they have no qualities.

Yet the point escapes the Gazette. Iammarino continues, “The statement after 9/11 was, ‘You’re either for us or against us.’ That is not a way to gain the respect of the minds and hearts of men.”

Liberals are worried about how we are viewed by the “international community” instead of what should be done to protect our nation. While international favor is a positive thing, it should not be the compelling factor for our actions. We are not in a battle for them to like us; we are in a battle to keep them from killing us.

“Whether we realize it or not, we need help,” Iammarino wrote. “We need a dialogue of our people with people of other nations and religions. We need to understand each other better and not look to war as the solution.”

It is as though liberals think that the United States was the big, bad bully who instigated all this. Were we not innocently going to work when hijacked planes (in which pilots lay bleeding with throats cut) slammed into the World Trade Center towers? It was Osama Bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qaida, who said, “to kill Americans and their allies, civilians, and military is an individual duty of every Muslim who is able.” What is left to understand?

Al-Qaida and all those who harbor them lost their rights to the table of discussion because of their desire for terrorism. Liberals fail to grasp the fact that we are not wresting with a civilized country that is somehow fighting for its rights. The Muslim extremists will do anything in their power to utterly destroy us merely because we exist. How do you reason with barbarians?

“I submit,” Iammarino wrote, “that we really don’t know why or even who we are fighting.”

If the “we” is liberals, his statement is entirely accurate, but if he suggests that our fighting men and women are not capable of understanding their reason for being in Afghanistan and Iraq, he has not spoken to a soldier lately.

I understand that guest editorials are just that: opinions of persons separate from the newspaper. The Gazette is nonetheless culpable for every word in their newspaper. For instance, if they had printed a guest editorial of a KKK member advocating the elimination of all minorities, the state would be up in arms regardless of the writer’s association with the paper.

The Gazette’s perpetual avocation of ultra-liberal philosophy proves their place is not in West Virginia among the reasonable, conservative folk. Their view on international issues proves once again that liberals have no business controlling our country.