OUR WAR ON TERRORISM

...I am speaking not only of the deaths and mutilations of American youth, but the deaths and mutilations of Iraqi children...

...A second reason that so many people accept Bush's leadership is that no counterargument has come from the opposition party...

...I believe that the American people's natural compassion ' would come to the fore if they truly understood that we are terrorizing other people by our "war on terror...

...Even within their limited definition of terrorism, they—the governments of the United States, Israel, Russia—are clearly failing...

...He has dodged and feinted, saying that Bush has waged "the wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time...

...The answer so far, given by Bush, Sharon, and Putin, is military action...

...Is there a right war, a right place, a right time...

...And when the opposition party, the opposition Presidential candidate, can offer nothing to fill that policy vacuum, the public feels it has no choice but to go along with what is being done...

...Yes, we can try to guard in every possible way against future attacks, by trying to secure airports, seaports, railroads, other centers of transportation...

...policies—supporting Sharon, making war on Afghanistan and Iraq—"are completing the radicaliza-tion of the Islamic world...

...John Kerry has not challenged Bush's definition of terrorism...

...That is the only possible solution to a future of never-ending, pervasive fear...

...military saying this was part of a "precision strike" on "a building frequently used by terrorists...

...I can think of two reasons for this...

...They have not made clear to the public—I mean vividly, dramatically clear—what have been the human consequences of the war in Iraq...

...He has not clearly challenged the fundamental premise of the Bush Administration: that the massive violence of war is the proper response to the kind of terrorist attack that took place on September 11, 2001...

...We have enough evidence now to tell us that this does not stop terrorism, may indeed provoke more terrorism, and at the same time leads to the deaths of hundreds, even thousands, of innocent people who happen to live in the vicinity of suspected terrorists...

...Is it strange, or normal, that no major political figure has pointed this out...

...But neither ofthose actions can bring an end to terrorism, which comes from the fact that millions of people in the Middle East and elsewhere are angered by American policies, and out ofthese millions come those who will carry their anger to fanatic extremes...

...The highly respected International Institute for Strategic Studies in London has reported that "over 18,000 potential terrorists are at large with recruitment nicole schulman accelerating on account of Iraq...

...It is fear, a deep, paralyzing fear, a dread so profound that one's normal rational faculties are distorted, and so people rush to embrace policies that have only one thing in their favor: They make you feel that something is being done...

...Unless we reexamine our poli-cies—our quartering of soldiers in a hundred countries (the quartering of foreign soldiers, remember, was one ofthe grievances ofthe American revolutionaries), our support of the occupation of Palestinian lands, our insistence on controlling the oil of the Middle East—we will always live in fear...

...Yes, we can try to capture known terrorists...

...I am reading at this moment of an American bombing of houses in the city of Fallujah, leaving four children dead, with the U.S...

...The September 11 attacks, the suicide bombings in Israel, the taking of hostages by Chechen nationalists—all are outside the bounds of any ethical principles...

...What can account for the fact that these obviously ineffective, even counterproductive, responses have been supported by the people of Russia, Israel, the United States...

...The CIA senior terrorism analyst who has written a book signed "Anonymous" has said bluntly that U.S...

...As I write this, three years after the events of September 11, the death toll for American servicemen has surpassed 1,000, more than 150 Russian children have died in a terrorist takeover of a school, Afghanistan is in chaos, and the number of significant terrorist Howard Zinn, the author of "A Peoples History of the United States," is a columnist for The Progressive...

...With the failure so obvious, and the President tripping over his words trying to pretend otherwise (August 30: "I don't think you can win" and the next day: "Make no mistake about it, we are winning"), it astonishes us that the polls show a majority of Americans believing the President has done "a good job" in the war on terrorism...

...Let us begin by recognizing that terrorist acts—the killing of innocent people to achieve some desired goal—are morally unacceptable and must be repudiated and opposed by anyone claiming to care about human rights...

...It is a cheap way of ending a discussion without examining intelligent alternatives to present policy...

...In the absence of an alternative, in the presence of a policy vacuum, filling that vacuum with a decisive act becomes acceptable...

...If we were to announce that we will reconsider those policies, and began to change them, we might start to dry up the huge reservoir ofhatred where terrorists are hatched...

...Kerry has not spoken clearly, boldly, in such a way as to appeal to the common sense of the American people, at least half of whom have turned against the war, with many more looking for the wise words that a true leader provides...

...attacks rose to a twenty-one-year high in 2003, according to official State Department figures...

...This must be emphasized, because as soon as you suggest that it is important, to consider something other than violent retaliation, you are accused of sympathizing with the terrorists...

...Since war is itself the most extreme form of terrorism, a war on terrorism is profoundly self-contradictory...

...He has not been forthright...

...What their wars have in common is that they are based on an enormous deception: persuading the people of their countries that you can deal with terrorism by war...

...Then the question becomes: What is the appropriate way to respond to such awful acts...

...These rulers say you can end our fear of terrorism—of sudden, deadly, vicious attacks, a fear new to Americans— by drawing an enor- ^ mo us circle around an A area of the world where terrorists come from (Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya) or can be claimed to be connected with (Iraq), and by sending in tanks and planes to bomb and terrorize whoever lives within that circle...

...First, the press and television have not played the role of gadflies, of whistleblowers, the role that the press should play in a society whose fundamental doctrine of democracy (see the Declaration of Independence) is that you must not give blind trust to the government...

...It is emotionally satisfying, even if rational thought suggests it does not work and cannot work...

...Whoever the next President will be, it is up to the American people to demand that he begin a bold reconsideration of the role our country should play in the world...

...It's not hard to figure that out...

...If John Kerry cannot offer an alternative to war, then it is the responsibility of citizens, with every possible resource they can muster, to present such an alternative to the American public...

...That would be "our" war on terrorism...