Walker Must Face Consequences of His Chosen Path. (Commentary).

PARENTS should love their children no matter what, so I understand when the mother and father of John Walker say, "He must have been brainwashed" to be fighting with the Taliban, that he is basically a "sweet, shy boy."

The problem is that a lot of sweet, shy boys were killed Sept. 11. And a lot of sweet, shy boys are fighting half a world away because Osama bin Laden, the zealot whom John Walker followed, decided to attack this country.

So he deserves his parents' sympathy, but not ours. And in light of attempts by Walker's lawyer, James Brosnahan, to paint his client in a more empathetic light -- making sure photos of John as a cheerful American youth get to the media, for example -- let's keep a few things in mind here.

The first is, while Walker was willing to hold a gun to an American's head, nobody, when this all started, held a gun to his.

He left a cushy life in the San Francisco suburbs to "find himself" in the Muslim culture. By that point, he had already had a dubious life on the Internet, posing, at times, as a black man critical of white culture.

In high school he had asked for his name to be listed as Suleyman AI-Lindh. He did this with his parents' knowledge. His father, in fact, encouraged his devotion to Islam.

Walker left home at 18, went to Yemen to study Arabic, then traveled to northwest Pakistan, where he studied Islam and embraced Taliban supporters. He traveled to Afganistan to train with Al Qaeda fighters. He was funded by and fought for bin Laden.

In other words, this is not some kid who got off a bus in Kabul, got clubbed over the head and woke up in a training camp, groggy and drugged. And finally, his choice was jihad. Holy war.

The enemy was us.

Where exactly does the sympathy start?

Walker, who was captured after the Mazar-e-Sharif prison uprising, told a CNN reporter that jihad was "exactly what I thought it would be." When asked if he were fighting for the right cause, he said, "Definitely."

He made no attempt to apologize, no plea for his parents to forgive him, no claims of being confused.

But because Walker is American he has been treated medically, flown out of the country, and will get some sort of trial. Whether for treason or a lesser charge, it is more than his jihad brothers will get.

It is more moments alive than the sept. 11 victims have.

It is more time on earth than Mike Spann, the CIA agent killed in the prison uprising, gets to enjoy.

And it might be more than Walker deserves You leave this country, adopt another take up arms and fight against us, you are, in my book, as much an enemy as any foreigner could be.

No matter how understandably your mom and dad defend you.

"To think that John has no idea his family is sending him love," his parents said after learning a letter they gave the Red Cross a few weeks ago had yet to reach him, "it's very painful?

Yeah. There's a lot of that going around.

Mitch Albom is the author of "Tuesdays With Morrie."