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2001-10-09 / 6:53 p.m. ~The Solution~ Proponents of war so often ask what might be the alternative, as if history is only doomed to repeat itself, as if there is no alternative to dropping bombs. They think it's what must be done, as if conditioned to believe so. I am not surprised that I am once again asked what I think the solution is. Being opposed to more killing of innocent people is not enough, I must provide a solution to the "problem". Well, we were attacked, yes, thousands lost their lives, and the attackers are also gone, they died too. What do we do? I am not sure there is anything we can do. It's been done. If Osama Bin Laden takes responsibility, directly, then to find him, and "punish" him would be in order. What exactly that punishment would be or should be I do not know. Kill him? Perhaps. Would ridding the world of him, and his views and plans, be ridding the world of future terrorist violence? This I doubt. Would it be better to aid foreign countries? Yes, most definitely. How? Food, medicine, providing assistance to those willing to overthrow their own militaristic, misogynist, fascistic, extremist regimes. But drop bombs? Kill innocent people, United Nations workers, other "casualties"? No, unacceptable. I thought of an analogy a little while ago, on my way back to work from lunch� Imagine a tiger in the remote jungles of India, a tiger whose habitat has been encroached upon, whose territory has been made smaller by the arrival of man. There is less food now for the tiger to eat, less prey, the tiger is hungry, and when a man wanders too close the tiger strikes, kills the man. The tribe of men, the townsfolk, want to kill the tiger, seek it out and kill it, but there are less than 2,000 tigers remaining in the wild, the tiger is an endangered species. The relatives of the dead man want retribution, they want the blood of the animal which took their father/son/cousin/brother/uncle/friend from them. What can they do instead of killing? Learn appropriate agricultural techniques, sustainable farming in the land they already occupy, make use of birth control so as not to overpopulate their own species, learn to back out of the tiger's territory, learn its habits, allow it its territory, adequate prey to feed upon. Learn what they did to provoke the attack. Learn to accept and appreciate, and somehow coexist, with the tiger. Okay, I don't know how appropriate an analogy this is, but it just occurred to me and it makes some sense. I'm not saying the Taliban are like a tiger, nor am I saying Bin Laden is like a tiger, but the Afghanistan people are definitely endangered. And yes, I know the Taliban have committed horrible crimes against humanity before what happened to us here on 9/11, and no, we don't know they are responsible for what happened to us, here, merely that they harbor Bin Laden in their country. They are the current American scapegoat. The current focus of our entire society. Social Security, Healthcare, the Homeless, jobs, you name it, every social program in this "God Blessed America" has fallen by the wayside so that billions (BILLIONS) of dollars may now be allocated towards this new war, CNN's "America's New War". What is the solution? Nothing will bring back those whose lives were taken that day. They are gone. If you need to kill someone to feel better about it then you may want to examine your own motives. What is the solution? As with the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia, and the "liberals" who enjoyed confronting me with that same question every time I mentioned I was protesting the bombing, I say to you, now, I do not know. I do not know. I repeat. My understanding is that we are the wealthiest nation in the world, now attacking one of, if not the poorest. Could it be that we have interests there�other than Mr. Evil Bin Laden and the Taliban? After all, as you like to remind me, the Taliban have been in power since 1996, they have committed the dreaded buzzword "atrocities" since they took power. Why is it we have not gone in on some "humanitarian" mission before now? Clearly our interests have been and always will be selfish ones. My solution? To expand on that, to actually give a fuck about the rest of the world for a change. There are reasons we are hated. Some are actually valid. I would suggest to anyone who wants to know to peruse some web sites, some socialist, some anti-war, I've given links here before, learn a bit of background on some of the "atrocities" this country has committed, learn a bit of the "terrorist" acts we are responsible for, the terrorists we have armed and trained, the millions of people we have killed. Ask yourself why you haven't cared about those deaths, but you now want retribution for the deaths of your own countrymen? Could it be that you are not opposed to innocent lives lost, only innocent American lives lost? And when I tell you I am opposed to dropping bombs on countries, on people, why ask me what the alternative is? Maybe I should ask you why you think killing innocent people is the solution. Okay, I've downloaded some articles off antiwar.com since I wrote the last paragraph. In one, an "Op-Ed" from the Libertarian Party, written by Steve Dasbach on 10/05, it is suggested that we adopt "�a non-interventionist foreign policy, which will keep America safer by reducing the number of nations and terrorist organizations with reason to hate us. Such a policy would also deprive potential enemies of U.S. guns, money and military training - which they could later use to kill Americans�" There is more to this article, and obviously others which explain alternatives to war, solutions for the future of our relations with foreign countries, but not training and arming potential terrorists does make the most sense, does it not? Bombing people, then dropping them 37,000 food packets, containing beans, peanut butter, jelly and shortbread, in areas filled with landmines makes so much sense. In the same article, it is claimed (and I have no way of verifying this right this minute - I'm still at work here) that the U.S. gave the Taliban $125 million in foreign aid this year. $43 million of that was from Colin Powell, in exchange for declaring that growing opium is "against the will of God". That was five months ago. We are the biggest monetary sponsor of that regime. What is the solution? To change our ways. Not to invite devastation and destruction, not to go in with the giant war machinery, not to bomb from the sky, to obliterate an innocent population too poor to survive this last straw. This was the wrong decision, and it feels like the beginning of the end. Please, people, if you don't like what you read here, go away. This is my diary. I'm not in charge, I do not make policy, these are my random thoughts, unedited, free flowing. Okay? And if you want to learn, do some reading, some studying, find the articles, the books, the videos, talk to some educators, not me. Cost of the War in Iraq
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