by Barbara Beebe
-Guest Columnist-

"... [violent revenge] is not the way to go. It will not avenge our son’s death. Not in our son’s name. Our son died a victim of an inhuman ideology. Our actions should not serve the same purpose. Let us grieve. Let us reflect and pray. Let us think about a rational response that brings real peace and justice to our world. But let us not as a nation add to the inhumanity of our times."

—Letter to President Bush, from the parents of Greg Rodriguez, who died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center

On October 27, 2001, BBC radio aired interviews from the anti-war march held that day in New York City. According to the reporter, there were approximately 2,000 people in attendance. The reporter interviewed a young man whose girlfriend had worked on the 84th floor of the World Trade Center. The young man told the reporter of the phone call his girlfriend had made to him. She said that they were waiting for assistance in evacuating the building and since she wasn’t sure she was going to make it, she called to say she loved him and goodbye. It was the last he heard from her. She is presumed dead.

Yet, he was attending the peace march and the reporter wanted to know why. He revealed that bombing Afghanistan would not catch the culprits or end terrorism but would enhance the likelihood of America being the victim of another terrorist attack. And, like many people who have lost their loved ones in gruesome ways, he did not wish for anyone else to experience the pain he was experiencing.

Bombing Afghanistan has definitely done two things: 1) It has increased the likelihood that America will fall victim to more terrorist attacks because 2) it is killing unarmed civilians. History should teach America that you cannot drop "made in USA" bombs on people without them remembering who damaged them. Like Vito Corleone in the epic film, "The Godfather," who waited until he was well established in America before going back to his native village in Italy to kill the don who killed his father, revenge has no statute of limitations and it never forgets.

The bombing campaign has killed mothers and daughters and sons and parents. It has killed Mullah Omar’s son. Even those killed by the Taliban for spying and defecting must be avenged by their families. And if, as the American government believes, the Taliban is destroyed, the families of those killed by the Taliban will vent their anger and frustration on those who made their loved ones spy and defect—the United States of America. Thus, the Bush administration has gotten the American people involved in a no-win situation. We answer violence with violence and wonder why, later on, we get more violence. Duh!!

Here we have an administration filled with the best that money can buy. The best education—Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Princeton graduates fill the Bush Administration—and the most privileged lifestyles have been lavished upon those who are running this war.

They’ve all had training in diplomacy and the art of politics. Yet, when all those skills were desperately needed, the Bush administration failed. Now, those without Ivy League educations—men who joined the military for subsidized education—will put their lives on the line to further enrich a handful of privileged people. They will die for oil and revenge and drugs, but they will not be dying for freedom, because freedom is being destroyed in the name of security. In the end, we will live like those wretched souls in the Middle East.

Over there, death no longer comes from old age, cancer, heart disease or ill-fated accidents. Over there, death by gruesome acts of violence is an everyday occurrence. Over there, people of all ages—children, old people, men and women—die from car bombs and drive-bys and assassination. The violence is so much and so often that very little in the way of logic and compassion can be heard through the din.

They call it the Holy Land, yet I find little to nothing holy about a land so filled with blood. In short, their lives are but brief moments of levity amidst a lot of grief. This is not the type of lifestyle Americans should be fostering. But we are today sowing those horrific seeds.

Surely, we are smarter than this. If we ignore the call for peace, we must understand how our future will be affected. Violence, like drug addiction, is big enough to take us all.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty or Safety." – Benjamin Franklin.

(Barbara Beebe is a freelance writer based in Fayetteville, N.C.)