Opinion

Letter to the editor

Military action is not vengeance

Dear editor:

While numerous anti-war letters have appeared in this publication, this letter is not a response to any one particular. Rather, it is to defend the position of the United States of America.

Labeling this military action as "revenge" is far too easy. Recognizing its necessity and executing this action require courage.

Osama bin Laden and the al-Queda network are directly responsible for the murder of nearly 5,000 innocent civilians. By nurturing and protecting al-Queda, the Taliban is complicit, at best, an accessory, at worst. Furthermore, Bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar, leader of the Taliban, have declared war on the United States.

A diplomatic solution to this situation is not possible. First, it has become clear that al-Queda is the force behind the Taliban. They pay the bills and may even be calling the shots. It is alleged that the Taliban have become puppets of Osama bin Laden and that Mullah Muhammad Omar personally approved the attacks on the United States. The Taliban are terrorists. We are the United States of America. We do not negotiate with terrorists.

Second, the leaders of al-Queda and the Taliban represent an extreme breed of Islamic fundamentalists that believe that one will go to heaven for killing Americans. You cannot negotiate with such people.

Third, many of the Arab nations that we now embrace as "partners" in the war against terrorism have, themselves, been complicit in terrorist activities. Every Arab nation has a sizable Islamic fundamentalist population that supports al-Queda and other terrorist organizations. The blame lies squarely at the feet of the illegitimate, totalitarian regimes which rule these nations. They have pandered to these fundamentalists fearing that openly supporting the United States and cracking down on terrorism will cause a fundamentalist backlash that could overthrow their regimes.

The United States has thrice in the last decade come to the defense of Muslims: Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo. The Great Satan has shed its blood and spent untold billions to protect Muslims worldwide while our Arab "friends" stand silent as fundamentalists encourage their masses to kill Americans. The truth is that we have no allies in the Persian Gulf. Afghanistan is a hotbed of terrorist activity surrounded by totalitarian cowards who bow down to terrorists. This makes a diplomatic solution impossible. The only solution is to make it clear that complicity in the murder of Americans is an act or war.

Let nobody convince you that the United States is not a peace-loving and generous nation. How many nations, in the history of history, have airlifted humanitarian aid to the citizens of a nation that it is simultaneously attacking? The Taliban has no interest in protecting its citizens. They have attacked and harassed UN and other foreign aid workers, stolen food from relief organizations, and put military installations in civilian areas to use their citizens as human shields.

Indeed, the Taliban recently asked the UN to return to Afghanistan, a request the UN has declined citing Taliban harassment of aid workers and direct threats from Osama bin Laden against the United Nations.

It is far easier to call any military action an act of vengeance than to fully face the reality that, in order to protect ourselves, we must kill. We must do our forefathers justice and protect the liberty that they sacrificed to give to us. Now, it is our turn to defend freedom. We cannot fail.

-- T. Andrew Caswell
Wellsburg graduate student