Letters to the Editor

Last Tuesday's terrorist attacks cannot possibly be supported by human reason

Many in the community may have read a column in the Sept. 17 issue of the 'Prince' written by Dan Wachtell '02 entitled "A Time for Restraint."

In this column, Mr. Wachtell begs that in the wake of last Tuesday's attack the American government show restraint, that we must not ask "who" committed these horrible crimes but instead ask "why" the killers were so angry. He writes: "What has America done to lead these people to the conclusion that murderous terrorism is the only appropriate action . . . Tuesday's terrorists felt that such monumental wrongdoing had been inflicted upon them, their families and their way of life by the United States that such calamitous action was the only remedy."

Mr. Wachtell directly implies that the terrorists who killed more than 5,500 innocent Americans were not themselves responsible for the bloodshed inflicted last Tuesday but rather that American actions and policies have unjustly driven otherwise peace-loving human beings to commit unprecedented mass murder — the worst act of terrorism the world has ever seen. Such a statement makes us ashamed of both our fellow Princetonian and the paper that would publish such ill-informed slander.

In response to Mr. Wachtell's claim that America is at fault, we would like to point out a few of the American actions that Osama bin Laden has used as a motivational tool to drive his evil co-conspirators into violent, suicidal missions. Perhaps then we can decide whether or not these innocent Americans were truly asking for it, as Mr. Wachtell seems to claim. This is the list of "monumental wrongs" that the United States has committed:

1) America supported British and U.N. actions to create the State of Israel in 1948. We have helped provide and protect this homeland for the Jewish people following the slaughter of six million European Jews in the concentration camps of World War II. While our ties to Israel remain strong, no nation has worked harder than America to facilitate peace in the Middle East. Last Tuesday's act of war was committed on the anniversary of the Camp David Peace Accords — a monumental American diplomatic achievement given the history of conflict in the region.

2) The support and protection of Kuwaiti sovereignty in the face of a brutal invasion by Iraq. Were we wrong to drive out Iraq in the wake of reports of wanton rape, murder and destruction? Should we have asked what tiny Kuwait had done to invite such an evil act of aggression? Somehow I don't think the Kuwaiti people felt that they deserved it. And does the fact that American oil interests were also at stake make it any less right to oppose Saddam Hussein's inhumane military aggression? No.

3) America supports democracy and free trade throughout the world. Certainly American culture has been spread by multinational corporations around the globe and certain cultures have found Hollywood movies, Coca-Cola and McDonald's to be invasive. Do movies, cokes and cheeseburgers alone warrant such premeditated slaughter? Osama bin Laden considers Arab countries friendly to American democracy and capitalism to be corrupt; he wants their governments toppled. Why? Because these countries are among the wealthiest, most peace-loving and stable nations in the region whose only "fault" is an alliance with the United States and our love of freedom.

Clearly it seems that there is a disconnect between America's largely benevolent involvement in the Middle East and the motivations needed for 19 cowards to kill thousands of innocent victims. In fact, Mr. Wachtell, there is no rational motivation for this act of pure evil, no justification that gives these criminals an exemption from American military retaliation. Did the victims of the Holocaust bother to ask themselves what they had done to Hitler to bring him to the conclusion that murder and genocide were the "only appropriate action?" We don't think so. They recognized pure irrational evil when they saw it, and people across the country and around the world are doing the same today. Nations around the globe are standing behind us because they recognize that freedom, peace and security cannot be taken for granted. Americans have always had to fight for these values, and we always will. Freedom comes at a cost — a cost paid in blood on the beaches of Normandy and in the jungles of Okinawa. American soldiers will die to give you, Dan Wachtell, the privilege to sit safely in your dorm room and criticize your own country. Mr. Wachtell clearly takes the freedom to criticize for granted. You won't find that freedom in Afghanistan; the Taliban regime will kill you for your opposition.

Furthermore, Mr. Wachtell claims amazingly that our leaders have manipulated the American people. He writes: "President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Secretaries Rumsfeld and Powell only want to arouse the anger and hatred of the American people to justify their rash, outdated and hawkish military action."

Since when did patriotism, a run on American flags and thousands of food and blood donors represent an "arousal to hatred?" American patriotism, especially this past week, is a healthy response of support for one's country in the face of a national disaster. Pursuit of the murderers and "those who harbor them" is in no way "racist," as Mr. Wachtell would like to have us believe and is by no means a sign of hatred toward innocent Arabs. It is simply a promise that justice will be served. Furthermore, there is no evidence whatsoever that our leaders have been "rash, outdated and hawkish." On Sept. 11, we were savagely and inhumanely attacked; Bush and company have since reserved judgment to make certain we identify the correct perpetrators before responding in an appropriate and effective manner. The outpouring of faith and patriotism are the only things that are helping those who have been bereaved move on with their lives in these dark days. We hope you, Dan Wachtell, would be ashamed to send your article to the families of 5,500 victims or to the exhausted firefighters who have been digging mutilated bodies out of the wreckage of two 110-story buildings and the Pentagon.

At this moment of grief and pain we should all be proud to stand together and support our fellow Americans. Our leaders need our prayers as do the victims and workers. We don't need divisiveness, nor do we need cowardice masquerading as conscience. May justice be served and God Bless America. Peter B. Hegseth '03 Nathaniel L. Hoopes '03