I wish to speak out as one citizen who is skeptical of the bombing of Afghanistan. I am 56, a parent, a fourth generation Washington native, a retired 747 captain, and a Vietnam veteran. I have served in public office.
I was a volunteer to the Vietnam War. My service was honorable and notable in that I was one of fewer than 10 pilots to survive being shot down in Cambodia. I would volunteer again to serve my country. I might serve again in public office.
Perhaps then you can understand my skepticism when The Herald headline reads “Payback begins” (Oct. 8). I remember paybacks in Vietnam. I’m not sure we concerned ourselves back then with who paid, so long as they were Asians. I see the same thing here. Who is dying in Afghanistan? Do we really know? Is it even appropriate to kill family, friends, neighbors or just countrymen of terrorists? Should we have executed Timothy McVeigh’s family and friends? His neighbors? Or just random white Christians? Are we seeking justice, protection of our citizenry or simply vengeance?
If we seek justice, we will find the persons who orchestrated and assisted in the Sept. 11 attacks and put them on trial. If we seek protection, we will pattern our airport security after El Al Israel Airline’s. If we seek vengeance, the feel-good type, we will cheer as the bombs drop.
I do not believe this is a war about freedom, unless we define freedom as irresponsible business. I refer to “inexpensive” airport security and the notion that anyone with money should receive flight training, or computer access, or even admission to our country.
Airplanes will get bigger. The Internet gets bigger. Pipelines, trains, trucks, or what next: all of our mechanized society is vulnerable. The first line of defense is a knowledgeable and responsible citizen. The individual action of those few passengers on flight UAL 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, prevented a fourth building from being demolished. We can all learn from those passengers, a citizens militia as it were. Certainly we must specially honor them. Theirs is the type of heroism which keeps us free.
We need not view our neighbor with suspicion. But we must gain a greater closeness and recognition that the world can be a very dangerous place. Freedom itself is dangerous; ask any teen-ager.
Afghanistan and the United States have a brutal common bond, we both execute citizens for crimes committed under age 18. We are the only “civilized” nation to so kill our own child-citizens and one of only five worldwide, including Afghanistan.
I support bringing terrorists, or any criminal, to trial. It is the civilized way. I cannot support this killing for vengeance.
Arlington
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
