Public Eye: Seeing Stars Over Kelso

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Just the contemplation of punishment for Kelso was sufficient for his supporters to insist that he had suffered enough. One reason for the surprising lack of sympathy in the U.S. for the American student Michael Fay after he was sentenced to be caned in Singapore is the increasing recognition that Americans have too much compassion and too little accountability. Our usual way would be to understand the root causes for Fay's vandalism spree -- his attention-deficit disorder and the breakup of his parents' marriage -- and send him on his way. From top to bottom, American society is soaked with the sense that with enough explaining, a good lawyer and the pressing of the right buttons of guilt and victimology, there is a way out of most things. The most heinous acts get a round of applause on the talk-show circuit, as if confession were a substitute for contrition. Forgiveness has its place, but so does retribution. There's a way well short of lashing an American abroad to restore the notion that acts have consequences, and it could have started in the Senate with two fewer stars for Admiral Kelso.