Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 23:00:36 -0500 From: carol@carolmoore.net (Carol Moore) Subject: [libs4peace] Terror War Out of Control To: libs4peace@yahoogroups.com ( Libs4peace), LPNCpeace@yahoogroups.com (LPNCpeace ) Reply-To: libs4peace@yahoogroups.com
Hmmm, the Cincy Post can figure this out but too many "libertarians" cannot...
> http://www.cincypost.com/2002/mar/15/wink031502.html
>
> Terror war veering out of control
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> The anti-terrorist crusade is getting out of control. Terrorism is a threat,
> to be sure. But our unfocused effort to attack our enemies everywhere
> threatens to do more harm than good.
> Worst of all is our campaign to unseat Saddam Hussein. We had a chance to
> remove him from power during the Gulf War, but the elder George Bush failed
> to push the campaign to a conclusion. Despite sky-high approval ratings,
> like those of his son today, he wanted to disengage the United States from
> the war as quickly as he could. And so we have been tangling with Saddam
> Hussein ever since.
>
> But that is hardly a reason to go after him now, in the wake of the
> September 11 terrorist attacks on the
>
> World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. There is no question that Saddam
> Hussein has done some unspeakable things, both to his enemies and to his own
> people. Yet there is no hard evidence, or for that matter, soft evidence,
> that either he or his fellow Iraqis were involved in the terrorist attacks.
>
> The stakes are painfully high. As violence in the Middle East spirals out of
> control, an unprovoked attack on Iraq could lead to retaliation on Israel,
> which in turn could involve the entire Arab world. It would be a terrible
> price for the United States pay to avenge itself this way in the name of
> family pride.
>
> Meanwhile, the United States is engaged in an even more puzzling
> anti-terrorist campaign in the Philippines. The brutal Abu Sayyaf kidnapping
> group numbers about 60 on the island of Basilan. The group has thus far
> managed to elude about 7,000 Filipino soldiers. Now the United States in
> wading into the fray with $100 million in military aid that includes 30,000
> machine guns.
>
> As Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Nicholas D. Kristof has pointed out
> recently, our entire effort seems ill-advised. The main public hospital on
> Basilan serves about 300,000, but like such facilities in developing
> countries around the world, has next to nothing to provide adequate edical
> care. But anti-terrorism is popular these days, and so we plunge ahead.
>
> It's like that in Afghanistan, as well. Operation Anaconda is aimed at
> rooting out the last Al-Qaida and Taliban fighters, holed up in caves far
> out of the way. Yet even after a ferocious bombing campaign and ground
> onslaught, we have little to show for our efforts. Reports of the fighting
> simply provide body counts that are a painful reminder of the nightly news
> from Vietnam, and the results appear to be about th same. Osama bin Laden
> is still at large, and it now appears that we don't have a clue about where
> he might be.
>
> And yet we remain committed to an open-ended anti-terrorist campaign that is
> costing a great deal of money, has a set of shifting targets, and has no end
> in sight. Indeed, it's hard to know when it might ever end, or what victory
> will entail.
>
> But it is politically popular. The American people have traditionally been
> willing to rally around their leader in times of crisis. They id so in
> World War I and World War II. They believed in the anti-Communist campaign
> in the Korean War, though the troubling stalemate helped bring down Harry
> Truman in the end. And initially they supported the war in Vietnam.
>
> Riding approval ratings seldom seen in the White House, George Bush has
> every reason to push ahead. While the recession may be ending, the economy
> is still not healthy. There is serious disagreement between Democrats and
> Republicans in Congress over what kind of stimulus package is appropriate
> and what to do about Social Security. The president's hand-picked candidate
> for the Republican nomination for the governorship of California recently
> went down to defeat.
>
> Our American electoral system means that campaigns begin months, and
> sometimes years, before an election takes place. Everyone in Washington, and
> around the country, is maneuvering for position with this coming November in
> mind. And November is eight months away.
>
> I remain troubled by the travesties that took place on September 11. But I'm
> equally worried about a politically-motivated anti-terrorist campaign that
> may never end.
>
> Allan Winkler is a history professor at Miami University.
>
> Publication date: 03-15-02
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