First of all, please notice that I'm not referring to the events of September 11th as the "Trade Center Bombing."  Strictly speaking, the World Trade Center was not bombed, and I believe that it's important in this case to be accurate, so as not to give any legitimacy to the attack.

I also do not refer to this as a declaration of war on America.  No act of a government was taken.  No declaration of any type of war was signed.

Any of these things, and I might have some smidgen of understanding.  I don't.

First of all, let me say that in my own way, I've been affected by this bombing.  Now before you say that what I'm saying is stupid, hear me out.  My best friend and I have been fighting for some time, and one of the few things we can get together on anymore is a show called Babylon 5.  A new pilot was set to air in January of 2002, and because of football games being cancelled and moved to later weeks, what would normally have been a show not going up against football instead went up against one of the highest rated games in years.  As a result, the ratings were poor, and the series did not get made.  That means no series to help smooth things over with my best friend, and more work to get over hard feelings.

Now that sounds like pretty flawed logic, doesn't it - blaming terrorists for robbing me of a good chance to work things out with my best friend.  Yet, if we take their logic, you'll see it's the same thing.  We should be helping them with problems with Israel.  We should be helping with problems in Iraq.  Or maybe we shouldn't be there at all.

Hey, what's so different about what happens in America?  Shouldn't they be concerned with my TV shows, or my friendships?

The answer is that yes, I should be concerned about what is happening to them, and they should be concerned at what is happening to me.

Yet in all of this, nowhere is flying airplanes into buildings an acceptable method of negotiation, expression of concern, or cry for help.  And that step across the boundary changes the entire context.  If the United States is expected to act in service of other nation's interests, then other countries should be expected to return the favor.  If those countries - such as Afghanistan - do not, then they can hardly cry "Unfair!" when the United States acts against them.

Therefore, while I might feel sorry for suffering Afghanistan refugees and people, I feel no compassion at all to the government of Afghanistan.  It was a question of "You stop them, or we will."  I'd like to say that this was the attitude of the folks who seized the planes, but it wasn't.  THEIR attitude was "You stop THEM, or we'll hurt YOU."  The people who seized the planes overestimated the strength of their own position.  Their plans rely on the United States *NOT* fighting back.  Then again, we adopted the view of the folks seizing the planes by ousting the Taliban from power.  Yet in doing so, we only played by the rules that were set down for us by the folks seizing the planes.  Fighting by the same rules is a fair fight - regardless if one of the fighters is bigger or stronger than the other.

Pursuing justice is something the United States *MUST* do for its own citizens.  If the government doesn't protect the people, then it is meaningless.

I would like to see us do right by the innocent bystanders in Afghanistan - and even the innocent bystanders in our own country as well.  Can I guarantee no harm?  No, I'm afraid I can't.  I wish I could.  But reality simply does not allow it, assuming that we decide to act.  And NOT acting in this situation is not a good solution.

Part of having power is the responsibility of using it wisely.  Many want to focus on the word "wisely," but want to ignore the words "using it."  Ignoring our own responsibility as citizens of the world in general is not a valid option.  The United States *MUST* act.

This page last updated 11/13/2006 .