U.S. retaliation could create more hatred
by Bernie Scheffler, reporter

    This week our country started military strikes against the Taliban government and Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terrorist network.

    But, as I watch the opening stages of this new war develop, I can’t help but wonder if we are doing the right thing.

    Maybe we should quit while we’re ahead.

    The situation in Afghanistan is far more complicated than our leaders would have us believe. We would like to think that we are simply trying to bring known terrorists to justice. We are retaliating against the most horrible terrorist attacks America has ever seen.

    The problem is that retaliation is exactly what bin Laden wants from the United States. In a sense, the Al Qaeda network set a trap for us, and we stepped right into it.

    Bin Laden is calling the military strikes “acts of aggression” and is calling Muslims worldwide to arms against America. We really need to stop and consider what this might mean.

    Millions of Muslims already hate the United States. They’ve hated us for years.

    The Palestinians hate us because of our long-standing support of Israel.

    Our “act of aggression” against Afghani Muslims could be just the event to send many more terrorists over the edge.

    This brings up a scary idea that this could turn into a worldwide conflict. Many people have even gone so far as to predic

t World War III.
    If we want to keep the world from becoming angry with us, I suggest we take another look at exactly what we’re doing in Afghanistan.

    President Bush was very careful to explain that this was a war against terrorists and not against the Afghani people as a whole. He went on to say that planes dropping food and supplies for civilians would closely follow our bombers.

    Unfortunately, while the intentions behind the food drops are good, it’s largely a political move that may be doing more harm than good.

    Humanitarian aid is necessary for the Afghani civilians, who were already struggling with a drought before military action began. Without aid, many will starve.

    The situation becomes problematic, however, when American planes dropping food follow American planes that have just dropped bombs. The situation is creating confusion about where help is coming from.

    The Afghani people are afraid that the humanitarian planes will be dropping more bombs. Several sources have reported that many Afghanis have destroyed the food dropped.

    The blurring of the lines between military and humanitarian action creates other problems, as well.

    For example, the American food drops have made Taliban troops take their anger out on other humanitarian groups. Members of a U.N. demining team were harassed and beaten by Taliban soldiers this week. Many other U.N. relief workers have also reported harassment.

    In light of all these problems, perhaps we should reevaluate our actions. There must be a more peaceful way to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, with less impact on Afghani civilians.

    Every fifth person on Earth is Muslim. That is equivalent to nearly one billion people.

    The last thing the United States should want is for Al Qaeda to succeed in turning such a huge number of people against us.