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Don't Fight, Indict!
By marciahopple on 2008-09-12 22:21:12
Soon after the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks, I joined some friends and strangers to demonstrate against a military response and in
favor of a global effort to bring the terrorist leaders to trial in an international court. We knew that war against terrorists
would be futile, and we knew that war involves "collateral damage", meaning civilians are murdered. Little did we know
that somehow the Bush administration would attack not only the Taliban and Al Quaeda in Afghanistan, but also Iraq. The
Iraq "war of choice" as the New York Times calls it, has diverted the US and the world, and billions in resources, from the
quest to find and bring Osama bin Laden and others to trial for their crimes. Now American Special Forces have made raids
into Pakistan. The war that the Bush Administration and Congress thought would be quick and "surgical" and stunningly
successful is like a metastisizing cancer. The war machine has again battered the lands and peoples of a country that did not
attack us, and again the US command is inviting terrible consequences. The National Intelligence Council recently
warned the Bush administration against launching raids in Pakistan. The NIC said such raids could benefit the Taliban and
destabilize the Pakistani military, according to an article by investigative journalist Gareth Porter. He says that raids inside
Pakistan are a major escalation of US military involvement in the Middle East, a new kind of war in a far more dangerous
place than Iraq or Afghanistan, and a shift of course that will contribute to the destabilization of Pakistan. I wonder if there
are any efforts by Pakistan, by the Middle Eastern countries together, by the US, or by an international body, to capture and
try the terrorists who the US is bombing across the border in Pakistan, along with their families and other non-combatants.
The chain of command for military action in Afghanistan is through NATO. But the American Special Forces who made
raids into Pakistan's tribal regions from Afghanistan are an exception, and unfortunately the US has chosen to go it alone
again in waging war in the Middle East. In recent weeks we have been hearing that Afghanistan is becoming more "deadly"
for our soldiers than Iraq. In one day, 10 French soldiers died there. I was already feeling sadness and frustration about the
deadliness of our presence in Afghanistan, feeling that it proves war cannot lead to "victory" in Iraq or Afghanistan, when I
began hearing about the Pakistan incursions. Now I am trying to learn more about what the Presidential candidates would
do about the terrorists tolerated by Pakistan, the illusion of "winning" in Afghaninstan, the need for diplomacy with Iran, and
our withdrawal from Iraq, if they were Commander in Chief. It is hard to imagine them, or almost anyone, finding a way
out of these wars that were unnecessary and are irreversible. I hope the new President will work with the world
community to root out terrorists for prosecution and to discourage countries from harboring them. .
