Posted Tuesday October 9, 2001 - 12:16:38 PM EDT 

"The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy." - Ramsey Clark (former U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon Johnson) As the Israelis continue their campaign of terror and oppression against the rightful and indigenous inhabitants of Palestine, America once more leads its coalition in the bombing of one of the most impoverished countries in the world.

The all too familiar scene of Tomahawk missiles and American bombers light up the eerie shadow of darkness in Afghan skies. We have been here before. We all watched the former US led coalition led by Bush Sr. against Iraq. We all watched the slaughter of civilian people, the destruction of a whole way of life of a civilization that dates back to man's earliest years here on earth. We continued to watch as 1 million Iraqis have died from either the Gulf War or the sanctions imposed on them.

Yet, even the scene in Iraq was different because Saddam Hussein had built up one of the strongest armies in the Middle East and was more capable of defending his country though the odds were overpowering. But Afghanistan is a country torn by war and lacking the means to defend itself from the greatest terror of all-missiles and bombs that shower down death and destruction upon the helpless.

People who cherish the sanctity of life cannot condone the killing of innocents anywhere. People all over the world were traumatized and shocked by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

For me, it is sad to think that after all, these attacks on civilians could have been the work of fanatical Muslim groups. So many innocent people died that day in the twin towers. Who can forget the petrifying sight of people jumping out of windows to escape burning to death or the passenger planes that crashed through the towers and then dove their occupants to a sudden flaming demise? As sad to me is the backlash of hatred that immediately swept through Western countries and in particular, America. Many Muslims and Arabs have been harassed, fire bombed, imprisoned simply because of their ethnic heritage or their beliefs, fired from their jobs, or murdered. An Arab father of six children who was living in America was shot in the stomach by African Americans who ran away from the scene of their crime. He died almost immediately.

Whoever or whatever group is really responsible for the attacks on America did not take into consideration the loss of innocent life or the repercussions on people who have to do with what happened. The life of every American has been altered forever and the lives of Muslim and Arab Americans have drastically changed as well. The wave of fear and hatred is appalling. The aftermath of September 11 is proving to be as terrifying as the attacks themselves.

As equally bad, again, we watch as Arabs and Muslims turn against themselves. How proud can the Northern Alliance be when it helps American forces kill its own people? How can other Arab and Muslim nations idly watch a part of themselves being slaughtered? We learn each day how superior America is. We discover how lethally capable America is of punishing its enemies. We begin to grasp how by manipulating and with the aid of a convincing script, America gathers the world into the two camps of "you are either with us or against us."

But will the bombing and war against Afghanistan cure the disease? Prevention is always better than cure. Americans must look inward and try to understand why some people have enough hate to commit such crimes not just against the American people but against all humanity as well.

A new foreign policy should be implemented to replace the present one dating way back to 1948 and before when George Kennan, then Director of Policy Planning U.S. State Department 1948 said, "To maintain this position of disparity (U.S. economic-military supremacy)…we will have to dispense with all sentimentality and day-dreaming…We should cease to talk about vague and …unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standard and democratization. The day is not far off when we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts…The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better." And such covert practices as the one stated by Ralph McGehee (former CIA analyst and author) CIABASE: The Crisis of Democracy Deadly Deceits: My 25 years in the CIA, "Death squads have been created and used by the CIA around the world-particularly the Third World-since the late 1940s, a fact ignored by the elite-owned media," should be done away with.

When Americans are confused as to why so many people hate America's foreign policy, they would do well to remember, "The USA has supplied arms, security equipment and training to governments and armed groups that have committed torture, political killings and other human rights abuses in countries around the world."-Amnesty International (United States of America-Rights for All"-October 1998).