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U.S. foreign policy needs to be reevaluated
Editor, Since the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, all I have been hearing on television is that it is probably the work of Osama bin Laden. Why? The number of people around the world that are angry about U.S. foreign policy is extremely large. Iraqis are angry about the continual bombings, the sanctions that have killed more than a million people and the depleted uranium used in bombing that has caused leukemia and other cancers. Yugoslavs are angry about the bombing and dismemberment of their country. Palestinians are angry about decades of U.S.-supported coup, death squads, torture, disappeared people and ruthless dictators. Africans are angry about U.S. support for apartheid and the proxy wars by Renamo and UNITA in Mozambique and Angola that have caused the deaths of millions of people. Indonesians are angry about the bloody dictatorship of Suharto. I could go on and on. Now, President George W. Bush will undoubtedly massively bomb another country, probably Afghanistan, causing the loss of more innocent lives and possibly commit U.S. ground forces in a search for bin Laden. Incidentally, the CIA was responsible for bringing the Taliban to power by financing the fight against the Russians. This policy will only exacerbate the situation and bring more terrorist attacks. I am appalled at the suffering and loss of life in New York and Washington. It is a terrible tragedy and could lead to the loss of civil liberties and will result in a headlong rush to Star Wars and militarization to the detriment of Social Security, education, the infrastructure, the environment, etc.
The difficult task for the American people is to change U.S. foreign
policy from one based on imperial might designed to foster the interests
and profits of multinational corporations to one based on peace, justice
and the interests of the common people everywhere. Then, terrorism will
cease. Gary Sudborough
Editor, I must say that I am outraged about what happened Sept. 11. I, like most Americans, want justice for what has happened, but at what cost? How far does the government want to go to keep America safe and obtain justice? I must say that Congress gave me, and I am sure many others, a big scare when it passed a resolution authorizing President George W. Bush to use force against those responsible for Tuesday's actions. To me this seemed to go against everything our country was founded on. Whatever happened to checks and balances? I feel Congress gave entirely to much power to one man. It is not that I don't have faith in our president; however, I would feel much more comfortable knowing the decisions lay in the hands of many and not just one. The way things have been going I feel this is just the beginning. Many people in Washington are talking about taking extra precautions to ensure the safety of Americans. The thing that is scary is they are talking about very unconstitutional things, such as random stops on the street to check suspicious people and special identification for people of different ethnicity. I do feel we need to take more precautions to be safe but not at the price of freedom. I think we should not lose focus on what our country stands for: freedom. If we allow this terrible act to tear down what our country stands for, then the terrorists have done more damage than just what happened on Sept. 11.
Kody Gonzalez, a freshman, can be reached at kg259301.
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