This is a true story of just one among thousands of other families in Afghanistan who have been the victims of the US war on terrorism. How many old enemies have the US and allies killed so far, and how many new enemies have they created? I assume the question will remain unanswered until the President or other US authorities ever realizes the fact that War can never be the best solution to stop any kind of crime even when it comes to terrorism.
The war is causing a greater degree of casualties around the world than the ones being addressed-- terrorism. Beginning with the invasion in Afghanistan by the US soldiers after the September-11 attack, almost 3 years have passed; the war has now changed its direction From Afghan to Iraq where the recurrent destruction and bloodsheds have became a part of everyday life of the Iraqi civilians. How many major goals have been accomplished so far, and how much success have we gained in our desire to hunt down those terrorists? As for our information, the main suspect of the terror attack is still out of our reach. The US allies don’t even have any single clue to trace him down or to catch him. Instead, our president has now targeted Saddam Hussein as a substitute of Bin Laden, and giving much of his attention to Iraq that has no proven link to the terrorists or the 9/11 attack. Many foreigners are being the hostages of these terrorists everyday and are being beheaded as an evidence of the intense situation in Iraq. As the media has turned back its face from the past and now only focusing on Iraq, perhaps many of us have already forgotten that thousands of Afghan civilians got killed on the war on terrorism. Surprisingly, nobody took the responsibility to answer why those innocent people had to pay the price with their lives. What about the fate of those people in Iraq? If the only reason for going to war against Iraq was Saddam Hussein’s stubborn policy about the weapons of mass destruction, why the innocent citizens who had no right to speak against their harsh dictator are dying ? Yet, no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq and those people are still under miserable sufferings. The 9/11 Commission Report stated clearly that there was no "operational" connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda. More than thousand of US soldiers have also been killed since the war has started in Iraq. Again, war causes nothing but destructions and sufferings.
If we concentrate in finding the actual reason why we were attacked, we can easily understand that there were much more to be done to reduce the resentment that people posses against us before going to the war. If terrorism were to be compared with a disease and the president with a doctor, then common sense would tell us that the first move should’ve been the attempt to find the history and cause of the illness that played a major role in creating such a disease. If the disease were not curable, the doctor wouldn’t kill the patient. He would announce necessary precautions that could be used to prevent such disease from being an epidemic. On the other hand, the president’s decision of going to war is actually aiding the hostilities among new and future generation of Iraq and in Afghanistan as a result of the terrible harm that are being done to them. If the US authorities were so concerned with the security of their homeland, then they should’ve been thought about the term prevention at the first place. Then perhaps, they could arrive at a better solution of saving all Americans from any further terrorists attack other than going into the war. As the main theme of this essay suggests, an war is not effective enough to accomplish any realistic goal in preventing terrorism but powerful enough to spark the hatred and hostilities to its extreme level. The practical example would be Iraq’s current unpleasant situation.
The ongoing war is affecting many other countries as well, if not physically, at least psychologically. If we think from a different direction, we can see that Islam can never play any role whatsoever to inspire the terrorists. “The Koran is saying to humans, this is the final guidance from your Creator, for the specific purpose of worshipping him and creating a civil society where you can live in peace with one another.” “Allah does not forbid you to deal justly and kindly with those who fought not against you on account of religion nor drove you out of your homes. Verily, Allah loves those who deal with equity”(Qur'an 60:8). However, the Koran also states in Chapter 2, Verse 190: "Fight in the cause of Allah those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loves not transgressors." From these, we can easily assume that the Muslim religion itself doesn’t support the politics of killing and destruction in an unjust way. So instead of finding the actual reason and trying to bring an end of these revulsions, the United States’ harmful war policy on this sensitive issue gave reasons to many countries around the world to misunderstand the war as a crusade. It therefore affecting our image very negatively to the Middle East, Asia, and many other parts of the Muslim worlds. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/09/0925_TVkoran.html http://pub117.ezboard.com/flearningislamtogetherfrm25.showMessage?topicID=6.topic
The war is negatively affecting our economy. The Pentagon is currently spending $3.9 billion a month in Iraq and just under $1 billion a month in Afghanistan that would bring yearly costs to almost $60 billion. 150,000 troops are suffering in Iraq and Afghanistan. News reports last week put the 2004 cost for military and rebuilding operations in Iraq alone as high as $70 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimated recently that the government next year would have a record deficit of $480 billion. The Treasury Department reports that for the fiscal year 2004, which ended September 30, the budget deficit expanded to $413 billion dollars. Meanwhile, total government debt exceeded $7.4 trillion, an amount that broke through the debt ceiling imposed by Congress. The trend toward higher deficits and ever-increasing total debt is clear and alarming. As a result, it is affecting the public education system ,health care, Social Security system, homeland security etc. our deficit has also affected the economies of many of our friends, allies and trading partners in the developing world. (source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/; http://www.startribune.com/stories/146/5047831.html)
Nobody is terrorist by birth. Then there must have some hidden reasons why people become terrorist and want to take revenge even at the cost of their lives. Therefore, we should try to figure out what these terrorists are fighting for; is it for money, power, freedom, or something else? War may only find a temporary solution in this regard by killing and threatening people, but it cannot give any permanent guarantee to stop more people from being terrorists in the future by means of inconsistency. War cannot accomplish any success or bring peace in the world as the two terms war and peace are completely opposite from one another.