[The following is a document from a war-mongering student group that favored the expansion of war with Iraq in 2003. MIM comments are interspersed below. ]
Students for War is an ad-hoc committee established to build support across America for military action against the murderous regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein.
Let us be clear -- we regret immensely the pain and suffering that inevitably result from armed conflict. However, we feel the events of September 11th demonstrate clearly the terrible cost of inaction in the face of danger from America's avowed enemies.
If the United States would have have acted decisively against Al Qaeda bases in Afghanistan before September 11th, the tragic events of that day might well have never taken place. Thousands of Americans who died that day ? mothers, fathers, children and students -- would still be alive.
Instead, our government hoped for the best while the danger posed by Al Qaeda grew.
In 1993, Al Qaeda trained the murderers of 18 American soldiers in Somalia.
In 1996, Al Qaeda bombed the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 Americans and injuring 500 others .
In 1998, Al Qaeda bombed the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 223 and injuring thousands.
In 2000, Al Qaeda bombed the U.S.S Cole, nearly sinking it and killing 17 American sailors.
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International Minister replies for MIM:
The above timeline starts in 1993. Yet it was previous U.$. military action that created
Al Qaeda by arming and training it against the
phony communist Soviet Union.(1) It was U.$. military action in the 1991 Gulf War
that turned Osama Bin Laden against the United $tates. Ever since then he has demanded
withdrawl of U.$. troops from Saudi Arabia. In other words, studentsforwar.com is arguing for
more war to tidy up problems created by previous U.$. wars.
Saddam Hussein was on the CIA payroll and rewarded by Reagan and Bush for attacking Iran with weapons of mass destruction.(2) Now studentsforwar.com wants to put another puppet in Iraq. Do they ever learn from history?
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Studentsforwar.com continues:
Yet, even as the threat posed by Al Qaeda grew, the American response remained
primarily diplomatic. Talk, talk, and more talk. Al Qaeda continued to operate
openly from bases in Afghanistan, building their worldwide terrorist network and
preparing to turn U.S. airlines into weapons of mass destruction.
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International Minister replies for MIM:
Quite the contrary, the United $tates continued to occupy Iraq from 1991 to the present day
in the "no-fly" zones and its war-generated and military enforced
sanctions strangled the Iraqi people but did not produce harmony.
U.$. troops also stayed in Saudi Arabia, just as Osama Bin Laden complained.
Clinton also bombed Al Qaeda and continued financing and arming the I$raelis who kill Palestinians
on a daily basis. That might be the imperialist idea of diplomacy, but it is also war.
It did not "work."
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studentsforwar.com continues:
Finally, our government's inaction caught up with us. On September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda hijacked four airliners, destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and murdered thousands of Americans.
Students for War hopes America will not dishonor those Murdered on September 11th by forgetting the lessons of that day: that our American homeland is not immune from attack, and that we cannot permit America's enemies the opportunity to strike.
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International Minister replies for MIM:
This is the "logic" of pre-emptive strikes--"cannot permit America's enemies the opportunity
to strike." It's also I$rael's "logic" for killing Palestinians every day. It's the same
"logic" by Hitler that said if you kill all the Jews, they can't strike you anymore.
It is the "logic" of genocide. People who are dead don't have "the opportunity to
strike," and so fascists have concluded that perpetual war is the highest good of the species.
Even imperialist scum Al Gore noted: "If other nations assert the same right, then the rule of law will quickly be replaced by the reign of fear."
Notes:
1. http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp?cp1=1
2. http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/bookstore/books/violence/ritter.html