Editor,
What’s up America? Afghanistan is poor. Its population is roughly 27 million. The Afghan life expectancy is 47 years, more than two thirds of the people are illiterate and telephone service is erratic.
It has 24 kilometers of railroad and less than 3,000 kilometers of paved road, and only 10 of its airports have paved runways. Afghanistan is already war-torn. The United Nations announced that without substantial relief, this winter could see up to seven million deaths from starvation.
Add the panic of closed borders and even less food. Add B1 and B52 bombers, stealth missiles and more. Add fear and mass civilian migration, and the consequent loss of what little services there were.
But it’s OK: we’re dropping food with our bombs. Enough for about one of every 100 people who need it. But no food is falling from the sky in Taliban regions — so that leaves maybe 10 percent of the country getting this “humanitarian aid.”
Here’s the drill: we throw the nation into disorder. Agitate already harsh conditions and make a desperate population frantic. Undermine support for the Taliban. Destroy the Taliban. Kill Osama bin Laden. Exit victorious. Hope innocent deaths go unnoticed, drowned out by patriotic applause and back-patting. Point our cameras elsewhere. Terrorism is violence against people for political ends. The only thing that makes our actions different is our truly-gifted public relations team.
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We’re giving the world a message: don’t fuck with us. We’re declaring a “war on terrorism.” This will be about as successful as the “war on drugs” has been.
What it will do is reduce civil rights, give rise to more McCarthyan politics, create fear and division within the United States, and, most important, increase profits for the multi-billion dollar American military-industrial complex.
The United States may come out on top, but whose United States will it be? Sure won’t be for the people, by the people. Unless by “people” you mean the top five percent.
Damian Taggart
UNM student
