At the risk of becoming yet another of the few outspoken voices of moderate dissent on our nation's current "War Against Terrorism" and the potential wrath that dissent may evoke, I feel the need to point out a statement made by William Raspberry in Monday's Albuquerque Journal.
Raspberry, whom I regard as a relatively progressive voice in the media, took what I see as a bandwagon stance to Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney's response to the Saudi prince who offered millions of dollars to help the WTC relief efforts.
Raspberry argues that McKinney's response that the United States must "rethink" its role in the Middle East is inappropriate during this time of war and that there is a more appropriate time or place for opinions of dissent. I couldn't disagree more.
At a time when our nation has been deeply wounded and caught off guard, I can see no better time for our government and our people to be thinking about how we portray ourselves to the rest of the world and how we do things here at home.
There have been too few columns and letters to the editor, much less stories in the electronic media, that discuss this event and our reaction to it in the larger context of the history of the Middle East and, even more importantly, in terms of our development as a nation.
I, along with what I presume is most everyone in America, agree that the WTC attacks were a disgusting and senseless loss. I agree that those who perpetrated such an act of violence must be brought to justice - in whatever form that may take.
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However, I disagree that this is not the time or place to talk about what our nation could have done to avert this disaster or steps it might take in the future to prevent it. We can discuss lessons taught by the Bible, for instance: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Certainly, raining bombs on Afghanistan is hardly evidence of the Golden Rule. Another example of our behavior that contradicts such a rule is our previous involvement in Afghanistan, arming rebels - regardless of their underlying beliefs - to fight the Soviets, resulting in the current rule of the oppressive Taliban.
Has anybody in our government ever been to a motivational seminar? I don't put much credence in those things myself, but I think one would be hard-pressed to find one who didn't dictate another obvious, yet less biblical, rule: "Be proactive, not reactive."
This "war" is an obviously reactive pursuit. Had previous administrations been more proactive in resolving peace in the Middle East - and in other parts of the world - perhaps we would not be in this mess.
Preceding that rule, however, necessitates yet another rule. Maybe you'd hear of this one in a therapy session, but it still remains true: "You must take care of yourself before you can take care of others."
I don't mean the United States should ever take on an isolationist policy, but how are we to ever prescribe peace and progressive development to the world when we have such glaring problems here at home?
We are presently fighting many "wars" within our own borders - the "war" on drugs, the "war" on violence and crime, the "war" on ignorance. I was disgusted to learn that George Bush was asking all American children to give a dollar to an Afghan childrens' fund, when there are many children here that don't have a single cent to their name.
I am not an expert on foreign or domestic policy, so I can't and won't prescribe specific actions in this time of uncertainty, but I can't help but see what is a glaring hypocrisy in the present actions of our government. Along with fighting the war to root out terrorism, we should also undertake a serious program of evaluating our present domestic and foreign policies to evaluate our strengths and weaknesses.
Right now, we have many deep wounds in our nation that the Band-Aid of war alone will not cure.
Maggie Toulouse
Guest columnist
Toulouse is a graduate student in the Political Science Department.
