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It
has been three days and I still suffer from wild emotional swings.
One minute, I am in a black depression. A moment later, I burn
with white hot anger.
A
friend from England has written about touching gestures of support
from her people. Another wrote of his nephew, a newcomer to this
country, who is missing in the rubble and presumed dead. He had
helped one person escape, but went back in after another in a
wheelchair. A veteran wrote about a buddy killed at the Pentagon.
I
think of these and other things and I cannot stop the tears.
Then
I get angry. I get angry because the blood of my countrymen has
been spilled. I want revenge and while there is nothing wrong
with this, the vehemence frightens and sickens me.
Yet
I have no stomach for those who urge restraint. They ask us to
put ourselves in the place of those who have killed us by the
thousands.
We
are at war. Civilians die in any modern war. The Taliban -- Afghanistan's
de-facto government -- enjoys popular support. An innocent Afghan
civilian has more to say (albeit not much) about who runs that
nation than did any of the thousands of my countrymen slaughtered
by their great hero: Osama
bin Laden.
We
killed hundred of thousands when we dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. But that action saved the lives of countless Allied
soldiers who otherwise would have had to invade Japan. Harry
S Truman was perfectly correct to do it. His oath was to protect
the people of the United States. George W. Bush took the same
oath and it didn't include the innocents of Afghanistan.
bin
Laden's shadowy organization has attacked us before. We used restraint
when we retaliated. It only made them stronger and made us look
foolish and thuggish.
Something
far more severe than a retaliatory air strike is called for. According
to the polls, the vast majority of Americans share this sentiment.
I
would love to be able to end the threat with an aerial bombardment.
But that is not going to happen.
Nukes
are out of the question: We know far more about their lingering
effects now than Truman did when he made his correct decision.
We would also lose the right to demand other nations never use
them to settle their conflicts. No, that tempting option must
be off the table.
We
will also never get Osama bin Laden out of hiding in Afghanistan
by parking a ship offshore and lobbing missiles at him. Surgical
strikes are a myth. Afghanistan is too far inland. There is
just too much territory for him to hide from the smartest of missles.
I wonder if my generation and the generation that followed it
can stomach what all this means. We were raised watching quick
and easy conflicts resolved on television. For us, Vietnam was
at most a conflict for our parents or even grandparents. Our defining
conflicts were Wars of Instant Gratification; Grenada, Panama
and Iraq. The vast majority us never experienced them firsthand.
We watched on television.
We
are not the Greatest Generation.
We
are going to have to go in and get bin Laden. We are going to
have to fight the Taliban. We are going to have to send ground
troops to fight in the most rugged terrain on Earth against the
same people who fought off the Soviets. We are going to have to
fight their allies: Iraq and possibly Iran and Syria, all sponsors
of terrorism.
We
will have allies. May God forgive me for anything unflattering
I have ever said about them.
This
war will take many years. There are going to be body bags. They
are going to be flag-draped coffins. Daily and weekly newspapers
will carry the obituaries of young men instead of their college
graduation announcements. Know what a "Gold
Star Mother" is? Ask your grandparents. They know.
I
hope we have enough volunteers to replace the thousands of soldiers
who will be killed. But we probably won't. The young men so eager
for revenge now will learn the true meaning of "draft
registration."
We
are going to have to be wary some of those who govern us who will
use this as an excuse to erode our right to travel, our right
to keep and bear arms and our right to privacy, all in the name
of protecting us.
We
are going to have to pay the bills for this war. George W. called,
and he needs that tax refund back, thank you very much.
We
will have to resist the urge to hate. The vast, overwhelming majority
of Arabs are not our enemy. Neither is the Islamic faith. We cannot
let what happened to those of Japanese ancestry during World War
II happen to those of Arabic stock. My hometown is filled with
people of Arabic stock and they serve as business and civil leaders.
My Congressman is one such person.
Despite
all the bad things that might happen, we need to do this. The
harm of doing too little outweighs the harm from doing too much.
We
must pay no attention to those who denounce the coming war because
"violence never solves anything." History has proven
them wrong. In 146 B.C., it solved the problem Rome
had with Carthage. In 476 B.C., it solved the Visigoth hoarde's
problem with once-mighty Rome. The same thing can happen to us.
Pacifists
are the most sickening people among us. An unabashed coward is
easier to stomach; He cannot help but be what he is and may even
have the decency to be embarrassed at his condition. Pacifists
enjoy the freedoms we enjoy but have rationalized a way to avoid
the sacrifices. They strut around in public feeling morally superior
while other, better people, do their fighting for them.
This
war is just beginning. It's going to get worse before it gets
better. Right now, we are buying flags by the truck load and donating
blood by the gallons. But sooner than we think, the parades will
stop and the dying and the real sacrifices will begin.
William
B. Dennis II
Sept. 13, 2001
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