LETTER: Bush offers aid to Afghans for country's own interests

Editor,

I write this with the knowledge that we are now at war. I can't help feeling the weight of this situation and my place as a human being in the thick of these events.

What does it mean that thousands were killed in our country last month?

What does it mean that innocent people may be being bombed right now?

I can only interpret the situation in such a way that it makes some sense to me so that I don't go crazy.

All I know is that if the United States drops aid like the media is saying it will do, then starving people will hopefully find comfort for the time being.

Yet, this "aid" that is so direly needed in Afghanistan would not be possible if our country hadn't been attacked last month.

President Bush claims that "we" are brothers to the Afghan people, so why now, I ask?

Why not months or years ago?

It seems that we are only trying to win their hearts for our own interests; an interest-habit that has gotten worse over the last decade.

I can't pretend to know how anyone feels in any of these horrible situations.

I didn't know anyone who died in New York or Washington, D.C., and I don't know what it is like to be starved by an oppressive government.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that on the other side of the world, hopefully, a child with an empty stomach is enjoying those precious moments after one has eaten.

After watching people die in our country and knowing that people are starving and being oppressed in many countries, I just find it hard to pick sides.

It's hard for me to make sense that a man would kill himself and others in the name of some outrageous ideal.

But it is not that crazy to think that a man would die so as to bring attention, the strictest attention, to a situation that could be deemed a crime against humanity.

Whatever the case, I know my opinions don't justify much, but I just don't believe people kill themselves because they are crazy or evil or cowardly.

People kill themselves because they need attention.

Joseph Smith

English student