On September 11, foreign terrorists killed several thousand people by destroying the World Trade Center and damaging the Pentagon.
Some people considered this a criminal act – not an act of war by a foreign nation. They said the U.S. government should concentrate on finding, capturing, and bringing to trial anyone connected with the attacks.
The people who wanted war said this approach was laughable. They demanded that the doves lay out a fool-proof plan that would guarantee the capture of Osama bin Laden and anyone else involved in the attacks.
Of course, no one could do that. And so the warmongers carried the day – and the U.S. went to war against Afghanistan.
What Has Happened?
Now, four months later, what has been achieved?
Many things . . .
-
Afghanistan has been bombed and bombed and bombed, just as many people wanted. The entire village of Kama Ado was wiped out, for example, killing 115 people who had nothing to do with the September 11 attacks. Reporters visited the remains and saw the fragments of U.S. Air Force bombs. Another bombing, at Qalaye Niazi, killed at least 50 civilians – apparently because a local anti-Taliban tribal leader, trying to intimidate local citizens, told the U.S. military that Al-Qaeda forces were there. (For some reason, these events hold little interest for the American news media.)
-
Throughout Afghanistan, thousands of people have died from the U.S. bombing – even though American TV news channels rarely report these deaths. No one has claimed that a single one of the dead people had anything to do with the September 11 attacks. Their guilt lies in not overthrowing the Taliban or in possibly being members of Al-Qaeda – not in any knowledge that they participated in the attacks.
-
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled their homes – trying to get into Pakistan to escape the American bombing. Imagine how you’d feel if you had to leave your home and all your possessions to avoid being killed.
-
Tens of thousands of Afghans are starving to death – in many cases eating grass to stay alive as long as possible. Afghanistan has always been a poor country; now it is a devastated one.
-
Because of the destruction, Afghanistan will have to be rebuilt – at a cost of billions of dollars. And guess who’s going to pay for it. That’s right – you and I.
- Tens of millions of people around the world have been added to those who believe the U.S. is a big bully that tyrannizes small countries.
Eggs & Wars
According to the brave warriors, all these tragedies are the necessary collateral damage that occurs in a war. After all, you can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
(Did you ever notice that the people who believe this rarely volunteer their own eggs? It’s almost always someone else who must suffer the “collateral damage”?)
But where is the omelet?
Despite all the deaths and destruction, the devastation hasn’t produced the capture of a single person claimed to be involved in the September 11 attacks. In fact, the only arrest so far of an actual suspect occurred in the United States, not in Afghanistan.
Was the Right Choice Made?
On September 12, America faced two choices:
