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Mike Moser Not as easy as pushing a button I fear the tide of Americanism and patriotism
that has swept the country following last week's terrorist attack
on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington
will ebb soon when it is realized there will be no quick fix
to this latest crisis. I also wonder if we, as a nation, have the
stomach to do what needs to be done. Do we have the patience to carefully plan,
posture with our friendly nations, those who support us, and
do we really understand what we are up against? The attack on civilian targets using civilians
raises war to a new level, one we in a country cushioned by seas
have never had to face. Middle Eastern countries have been fighting
these wars for years, but we have not. Our isolation, to an extent,
has protected us from the ugliest form of war. We really cannot begin to fight this war until
we, as a nation, understand our enemy. Our enemy is not faceless.
Our enemy is not Arab countries. Our enemy is not Muslim believers. Our enemy in this war is a bunch of renegade
world thugs who hide behind the cloak of a religion, a religion
that is a mystery to most Americans. These terrorists are not
held by any bounds of moral conduct or decency or previous world
conventions and agreements. They don't want our land. They don't want
our money. They want to kill us. This week I ran across a commentary by Tamim
Ansary, described as a level-headed Afghan-American writer. Ansary talked about hearing pundits on talk
shows and commentators and everyday Americans wanting to "bomb
Afghanistan back to the Stone Age," about not being able
to avoid collateral damage. "And I thought about the issues being
raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even
though I've lived here for 35 years, I've never lost track of
what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen
how it all looks from where I'm standing. "I speak as one who hates the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these
people were responsible for the atrocity in New York and Washington
D C. I agree that something must be done about these monsters. "But the Taliban and bin Laden are not
Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan.
The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan
in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When
you think of Taliban, think Nazis. When you think bin Laden,
think Hitler. And when you think 'the people of Afghanistan,'
think the Jews in the concentration camps. "It is not only that the Afghan people
had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims
of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come in
there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats' nest of international
thugs holed up in their country." Ansary went on to explain that Afghanistan
is a country of an estimated 500,000 disabled orphans, a country
with no economy, no food. There are millions of widows. And the
Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The countryside is littered with land mines,
farms all destroyed years ago by the Soviets. And it is a rugged,
unforgiving country. In fact, Ansary goes on to say that new bombs
would only stir the rubble left by years of bombing by the Russians.
Houses, hospitals, schools, all lie in stony heaps now. So what
is there to bomb? I am convinced the goal of the terrorists,
whose intelligence and conniving we have consistently sold short,
is to start a holy war between freedom-loving countries, specifically
America, and the nation of Islam. And that is why I wonder if Americans really
have the stomach for this new type of war. We have to listen
to rhetoric, even from countries who are siding with us but cannot
afford to join us in the effort because of the passions of their
religious zealots. We can't negotiate. What do they want? We
can't just send a bomb strike. Where and when and who? We have
to form a world net and strangled these thugs to death. Cut off
their life lines, identify them and surgically remove them. And
even though I hope I am wrong, I think it is going to take a
long time. · · · |