HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK -------------------------------- Original Message -----
From: ICARUS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, January 12, 2002 3:17 AM
Subject: Fwd: Where's the Victory?
Subject: Where's the Victory?
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2002 23:58:21 -0600
What Has 'Victory' Achieved?
by Harry Browne
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 . . .
1. 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. {1} Another bombing, at Qalaye Niazi,
killed at least 50 civilians {2} -- apparently
because a local anti-Taliban tribal leader, trying
to intimidate local citizens, told the U.S.
military that Al-Qaeda forces were there. {3} (For
some reason, these events hold little interest for
the American news media.)
2. Throughout Afghanistan, thousands of people
have died from the U.S. bombing -- even though
American TV news channels have shown little
interest in reporting these deaths. {4} 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.
3. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled
their homes -- trying to get into Pakistan to
escape the American bombing. {5} Imagine how you'd
feel if you had to leave your home and all your
possessions to avoid being killed.
4. Tens of thousands of Afghans are starving to
death -- in many cases eating grass to stay alive
as long as possible. {6} Afghanistan has always
been a poor country; now it is a devastated one.
5. 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.
6. 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. {7}
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:
1. Treat the attacks as a crime, recognizing the
possibility that the perpetrators might never be
captured.
2. Treat the attacks as war -- and rain death and
destruction on a backwards, third-world country
that was powerless to fight back.
Because choice #1 couldn't guarantee the capture
of those responsible for the September 11 attacks,
America went to war and decimated another nation.
But that choice didn't produce the capture of a
single perpetrator.
And so we have nothing to show for all the death
and devastation -- nothing except the increased
hatred of millions more people around the globe.
{8}
Retaliation?
We're told the U.S. has simply acted in
self-defense. After all, America was attacked.
But what we've seen wasn't retaliation. If you hit
me and I hit you back, I'm acting in self-defense.
But if you hit me and I respond by hitting your
sister, that isn't self-defense -- it's aggression
against your sister.
The U.S. hasn't retaliated against the people who
caused the September 11 attacks. It has attacked
an innocent nation and achieved nothing for it.
Freedom for Afghans?
TV news clips show happy Afghans shedding their
beards and veils -- while providing little or no
coverage of the refugee camps and villages where
people are starving.
Even if we could be sure that a majority of
Afghans -- or even all of them -- approve of what
the U.S. has done, the question remains: is it the
responsibility of America to replace all the
world's tyrants? If so, when does the bombing of
Saudi Arabia begin? And is the U.S. going to
invade China to supervise its "human rights"
activity?
And who could be so naive as to believe the
Northern Alliance is going to rule Afghanistan in
a more kindly way than the Taliban did? U.S.
troops will no more guarantee a free country than
do the U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia. But once the
war is over, our government and the press will no
longer pay attention to the Afghans.
(The Kosovo Liberation Army -- on behalf of which
the U.S. bombed Serbia in 1999 -- has driven
Serbs, Gypsies, Jews, Turks and other
non-Albanians out of Kosovo, "ethnically
cleansing" the area far more efficiently than
Slobodan Milosevic ever did. But how often have
you seen that reported on TV?) {9}
Revenge?
Lastly, has the bombing of Afghanistan at least
given people the feeling they've avenged the
Americans who died on September 11?
No. Revenge can be achieved only by hurting those
who have hurt you -- not by killing innocent
bystanders.
The U.S. war on Afghanistan has produced nothing
but misery.
I don't know about you, but I feel no pride in
knowing my government has slaughtered a lot of
innocent people in my name.
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