David Horowitz's piece conflates "radicals" with "progressives," and even implies that "progressives" are all now defending Kathleen Soliah. Maybe some progressives. Plenty of others, however, think the SLA was a hyperviolent, sexist, Marxist offshoot of the Panthers; we were then and are still horrified by the Foster slaying, and think the whole group, had they survived the Los Angeles fire fight, should have faced a jury, and if necessary a death sentence.

All liberals and progressives are not apologists for the SLA, any more than Horowitz and all his conservative buddies are apologists for Timothy McVeigh. This liberal says that if there is probable cause to charge Kathleen Soliah in the Sacramento robbery/homicide under the felony murder rule, let's "throw the book at her." If the fact that liberals believe in the rule of law makes Horowitz uncomfortable, perhaps he should examine his pre-assumptions. Perhaps they have become prejudices.

-- Robin W. Enos

As certainly as we can look back and condemn the SLA from our affluent, content age, there was a reason for their anger. There were people, entirely politically correct at the time, committing the horrendous crime of the Vietnam War. Don't forget that these people were responsible for more than 50,000 deaths, and countless maimed Americans who fought in Vietnam. Shall we now bring them to court to face their responsibility for murder and mayhem?

-- Don Mac Brown

While I can appreciate the fact that people can and do change over the course of their lifetimes, Soliah's willing participation in the SLA's many unconscionable crimes requires more than her mere apology. It demands her incarceration. Where is the logic in a society that imprisoned Patty Hearst, who was first and foremost a victim of the SLA, for what Soliah's many apologists now excuse or dismiss as mere youthful indiscretions?

-- Donald Koelper
Honolulu

The calls for Soliah to apologize are disingenuous and patronizing; I cannot believe that the authors of these diatribes fail to remember that she is on trial and that anything she says "can and will be used against her" in the very court of law she is engaged in. I, also, would like to see an apology for her support of the SLA, but it is not reasonable to expect that until after the full legal process ends.

-- Aaron Propes

DAVID HOROWITZ RESPONDS ...

Actually, the 1970s were an affluent, content age by the standards of over 90 percent of the population of the planet. The Vietnam War was essentially over in 1973, when the truce was signed and American troops were withdrawn. And how can anger over the Vietnam War justify assassinating an African-American educator or murdering a mother of four in a bank robbery?

As for apologies for promoting the insane ideas that America is a repressive, racist, imperialist country -- ideas that contributed to the evil deeds committed by Soliah and the SLA -- how in the world would an impending court trial interfere with that?

Finally, I mentioned in my article that many people on the left thought the SLA soldiers were criminals at the time, so I don't really know what Robin Enos is talking about.

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