A Gannett News editor has called for the dismissal of criminal charges against four anti-war protesters who vandalized an Army recruiting office near Ithaca, New York and poured blood on the office's American flag.

Writing in his syndicated column, Dave Rossie justified the actions of the self-styled "St. Patrick's Day Four" as necessary to counter "Americans' sheep-like acceptance of this administration's lies and deceptions" over the war in Iraq:

The defendants have said they acted out of conscience in opposition to an unjust and illegal war, and it would be unfair, it says here, to doubt their motives. They certainly had nothing to gain from what they did. Defenders of our misadventure in Iraq bridle at comparisons with Vietnam, but they are becoming impossible to ignore. Civilian protest is but one example. Home front protests against our involvement in Vietnam were far more explosive and widespread, and they helped bring that sorry episode in our history to an end.

Because the defendants acted out of "conscience," Rossie noted, "The federal judge should toss the case after opening arguments."

In addition to writing a column for Gannett, Rossie serves associate editor of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, in Vestal, New York.

Unless he is a hypocrite, it would seem that he invites anyone who, in good conscience, disagrees with what he wrote to go there and trash his office, with no threat of criminal prosecution whatsoever.