The past two and a half weeks have seen a conserted effort by the Bush administration to convince the American people that war is the only solution to this act of terrorist violence.
Yes, we as a nation are upset and angry at those who caused the many deaths and destruction and many are saying "AN EYE FOR AN EYE AND EVEN MORE" but has not that been the religious war in Ireland for the past 100 years. Or in the Mid East these past couple of years. Violence only breeds more violence. To nites news showed thousand of Afganastans rushing to the borders of Pakestain and Iran to escape what they fear will be an American war against their country. These refugees are being driven from their homes by the same fear of what our country is going to do to their homeland as we fear what further attacks may be in store for us in this country.
As I said in an editorial shortly after the destrucction and loss of life on Sept. 11th
President Bush, at that time said: this is an entirely new type of war. I said then and will repeat it, "Then let us seek an entirely a new approach to peace." President Bush has gotten a fairly large colliation of world nations together to help bring those responsible for Sept 11th to answer for their deeds. The President of Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak.
suggest that this coallition go to the United Nations to draft a resolution were all would work together to rid the world of terrorism.
EGYPT
These are good signs and then on tonites NBC news it was said that President Bush had
slowed down his all out rush to th use of force and might consider other methods such
locating their financial source and shutting it off, getting world opinion not to harbor
them and finally capturing theme without causing a lot of death and destruction. Those
are good signs and if you believe that this is the way we should go then contact your
Senators and Representatives and let them know. Also a letter or e-mail to Pres. Bush
would not hurt either.
This is taken from about mid part of her very good editorial
Dan Rather went on David Letterman and said words to the effect thai "wherever George Bush tells me to stand, that's where I'll stand. "
I'm hoping all this is an emotional response to this horrendous event, and eventually calmer heads will pre vail. The last thing we need is a national media that marches unquestioningly in lockstep with Washington. Americans need a media that will ask the hard ques tions about what actions we wilt take and what reac tion we can expect. They need to maintain their inde pendence, provide context, add historical background, and seek other views beyond the talking heads of Wash ington, It is not un-American to question what our lead ers are doing. In fact it is exactly why our forefathers made provisions for a free press- Alas we have become so accustomed to the sensationalism of the press, that we have forgotten that what they can do best is investi gative journalism, What if? What if. instead of all Monica all the time or Chandra Levy, we had a press that had been hammering on us about the fundamental failure of airport security or the massive proliferation of terrorist organizations throughout the world? Could this disaster have been prevented? The media has and can change things. Remember, they almost single handily started the Spanish-American War.
The mantra in American journalism circles for years has been, forget international news, it doesn't sell, Americans don't care, they aren't listening.
Guess what? They're listening now. It's time for the national media to roll up the flag. dry their tears, and then help us understand what is going on, what it will cost us, and what each of us can do to create a better world.
Thanks Karen for letting me use this part of your Editorial
Bill Weber