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By Jonathan Springton
Monday, Oct. 7 marked the one-year anniversary of troops being deployed in Afghanistan. The U.S. government and the Bush administration have made it their number one priority to find Osama bin Laden but have yet to find him. The FBI and CIA seem to have no idea where bin Laden is after a year of bombings.
Let's first look at the positives. The Taliban has been overthrown and power has been returned to the people of Afghanistan, even though there seems to still be fighting among the native tribes.
The U.S. has been pushing Taliban forces back almost to the point of total surrender, yet we still struggle to completely eliminate them. At home, the FBI and CIA have been finding many members of al Qaeda cells and trying to get more information about the people responsible for Sept 11.
All of these things have resulted in consequences. Many people of Arab descent that live in the U.S. have been scrutinized and harassed because of suspicions of the FBI about their allegiances. Civil liberties are being whittled away while John Ashcroft and company dance all over the Constitution. Domestic issues have moved to the backburner and replaced by interests of National Security. U.S. casualties overseas have mostly occurred not from enemy fire but from our own blundering.
The Bush Administration, one year later, has turned its full attention away from a job not yet finished in Afghanistan and towards Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The Republicans are doing everything possible to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iraq without any proof that they have been involved in the events of Sept. 11th. Bush's reasoning is that they have weapons of mass destruction that he thinks Iraq is certain to use. But wait a minute. Who has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons on this planet? Oh we do, but I guess that isn't the point, is it Mr. President?
While the urban structure is going to hell in this country and the economy tanks, our focus is on "the enemy" in Iraq.
We need to get the people who were responsible for Sept. 11 first while trying to fix the problems here at home. The only place Bush has succeeded in is putting on a show, just like his old man. We went into Iraq 11 years ago to kill 100,000 people to save a nickel on a gallon of gas.
And if you don't think that this move now isn't for the same reasons, then you better wake up. I for one will not be supporting any sort of action against Iraq.
The Republicans are in real trouble for the Congressional elections in November, and if the Democrats take Congress in the fall, then you can count on them taking the White House in two more years.
People are going to start taking a look at their pocket books come election time and realize that we are not winning the war on terrorism, and they are not going to be very happy. If Bush is re-elected in two years and Republicans hold the Congress again, then we are in more trouble than we think.
Signal - Georgia State University student newspaper
October 15, 2002
Are We Winning the War on Terror?
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