I am writing in response to last Thursday's peace rally that protested war in the Middle East and prejudice against Arab-Americans. It seems obvious in a Sesame Street sort of way, that you cannot have a "peace rally" when there is no war going on. Unless the organizers of this event had a source in the Defense Department that the United States had already attacked Afghanistan, to which I and the rest of the world were oblivious, then I think it safe to say there is no such war.
During these troubled times in our nation, it is important that the United States and the Amherst community unify behind the great principles that this country stands for and the leaders it has chosen. One of the most moving scenes on television in the aftermath of the tragedy was the congregation of senators and congressmen standing together on the steps of the Capitol Building singing "God Bless America"-for all their different backgrounds and ideologies they showed us how to come together. Our leaders have all pledged their support to President Bush during this campaign against terrorism. It is a shame that the Amherst community does not share that same loyalty to this nation.
Make no mistake about it: the attack on America was an attack against freedom. To allow this attack to go unavenged is to tacitly support terrorism. It is my opinion, and that of Secretary of State Colin Powell, that terrorism is an attack against civilization. To protest a defensive action of the United States against terrorism even before it happens is to manifest both pretension and a lack of patriotism on the part of the protestors.
To allow this attack to go unavenged is to show support for the genocide of Americans. No matter what the United States may or may not have done, the deaths of thousands of peace-abiding Americans cannot be justified. The idea of the peace rally is to support future terrorism on American soil and more deaths of Americans, as a lack of military action will no doubt lead to.
The rally organizers have likened our war on terrorism to Vietnam, which is completely ridiculous to any person with even a rudimentary knowledge of American history. In Vietnam, in which the United States should have never been, we attacked the Vietnamese though they never attacked us. In this case we have been attacked on our own soil, and retaliation is not only desired but necessary to protect Americans. The closest instance the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon can be compared to is Pearl Harbor, not Vietnam. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the United States was unified against the Japanese because good, loyal Americans were killed. In this case, American entry into World War II was not only desired but necessary.
In recent military actions the United States has taken painstaking measures to prevent the loss of civilian life. The United States, based on the principles stated in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, has, in recent times, never been about bombing countries into the Stone Age. Targets are chosen with careful strategy to prevent the loss of life. I have no doubt the United States will act in the same manner to prevent future terrorism. In fact, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has stated that special operations forces that fight on the ground may be the key to ending terrorism.
If the peace rally had been only about fighting prejudice against Arab-Americans, who were as shocked and mortified by the attacks as all Americans were, its purpose would have been just. But this rally was not about that; it was about children who have had nothing to fight for in this generation and are attempting to live up to the ideals that their parents supported in the '60s, while trying to bring attention to a generation that has been called apathetic. It is no coincidence that the organizers told me so many times that there would be national media coverage. In these troubled times the focus should be on the victims and the tremendous loss of life. To shift the focus from the victims to a group of bored students is to disparage the lives that were lost in the tragedy.
At noon on Thursday I looked back on my class and when I noticed that no one had left it gave me hope that patriotism is not dead on this campus.