America Under Attack: What we need is not revenge but justice

Nipawin - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis

dead
or
alive
I recall very well Pierre Trudeaus's dream of a Just Society for Canada. Now, I can only imagine how far away we have regressed from this dream and precipitated into a world nightmare. Pointing Osama Bin Laden as the master terrorist for the attacks against America, President Bush has just stated

"We will win the war and there will be costs... I want justice... There's an old poster out West that said: 'wanted, dead or alive.'"

unsavoury
In addition, as the United States is drafting new laws to fight terrorism they are reviewing the possibilities to restore their country's twenty-five year ban on assassinations along with the recruiting of criminals by the FBI and the CIA. Senator Bob Graham says that

"We have to have the authority to assassinate people before they can assassinate us,"

and Vice-President Dick Cheney adds that Washington might need

"some very unsavoury characters"

to its payroll in order to obtain valuable "human intelligence" about impending terrorist attacks.

rules
Are we getting out of our own minds? Are we going to begin the body count as we did in Viet Nam? Are we going back to the Nazis time when for example the Gestapo in Rome was executing ten civilians for every German soldier ambushed by Italian partisans? Human life is sacred and we are blaming the suicide bombers and now the suicidal human missiles for changing the rules of terrorism.

invisible
enemy
Does terrorism have any established rule? What's the difference between ending human lives through assassinations or suicidal human missiles, the body count? 'Human intelligence' is being misappropriated by politicians and militaries to wage a war against an invisible enemy, terrorism.

justice
We are all forgetting that human intelligence must be sustained and nurtured for our own pursuing of peace, justice and freedom. Let us not confuse revenge with justice. Revenge and the related killing of additional human lives will only take us into the spiral of more killings and more body counts. What we need is not revenge but justice.

------------------References

Bush: 'There will be costs' Pakistan delivers warning to Taliban, CNN September 17, 2001 http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/17/gen.america.under.attack/

Bush's team prepares to use 'any means at our disposal', Tom Philip, National Post, September 17, 2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/features/siege/story.html?f=/stories/20010917/692154.html



Nipawin - Tuesday, September 18, 2001 - by: Mario deSantis

dead or alive	I recall very well Pierre Trudeaus's dream of a Just Society for Canada. Now, I can only imagine how far away we have regressed from this dream and precipitated into a world nightmare. Pointing Osama Bin Laden as the master terrorist for the attacks against America, President Bush has just stated
dead or alive	"We will win the war and there will be costs... I want justice... There's an old poster out West that said: 'wanted, dead or alive.'"

unsavoury	In addition, as the United States is drafting new laws to fight terrorism they are reviewing the possibilities to restore their country's twenty-five year ban on assassinations along with the recruiting of criminals by the FBI and the CIA. Senator Bob Graham says that
	"We have to have the authority to assassinate people before they can assassinate us,"
	and Vice-President Dick Cheney adds that Washington might need
	"some very unsavoury characters"
	to its payroll in order to obtain valuable "human intelligence" about impending terrorist attacks.

rules	Are we getting out of our own minds? Are we going to begin the body count as we did in Viet Nam? Are we going back to the Nazis time when for example the Gestapo in Rome was executing ten civilians for every German soldier ambushed by Italian partisans? Human life is sacred and we are blaming the suicide bombers and now the suicidal human missiles for changing the rules of terrorism.

invisible enemy	Does terrorism have any established rule? What's the difference between ending human lives through assassinations or suicidal human missiles, the body count? 'Human intelligence' is being misappropriated by politicians and militaries to wage a war against an invisible enemy, terrorism.

justice	We are all forgetting that human intelligence must be sustained and nurtured for our own pursuing of peace, justice and freedom. Let us not confuse revenge with justice. Revenge and the related killing of additional human lives will only take us into the spiral of more killings and more body counts. What we need is not revenge but justice.

------------------References

	Bush: 'There will be costs' Pakistan delivers warning to Taliban, CNN September 17, 2001 http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/17/gen.america.under.attack/

	Bush's team prepares to use 'any means at our disposal', Tom Philip, National Post, September 17, 2001 http://www.nationalpost.com/features/siege/story.html?f=/stories/20010917/692154.html