Dear Arooj ! I listened to President’s Bush’s speech last night on television. He was addressing the whole nation, rather the whole world. I have mixed emotions about his speech. The first part of the speech was admirable. He was very sympathetic to the families who lost their dear ones in September 11, tragedy.

But further in the speech, I started to feel uncomfortable. I was disappointed in him when he became angry and revengeful. Rather than saying that we would investigate all those people who were part of these terrorist attacks and then try them in international courts, he declared that America was at war. Without offering any real evidence he gave his verdict that the attacks were master minded by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist group Al-Qaeda. He announced that all those people and groups that were terrorists in his eyes would be brought to justice.

After the speech ended I had a strong intuition that he had some hidden agenda, an agenda that was already in his mind, and the September 11 tragedy offered him a perfect excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.

For me the question is that if the FBI and the CIA did not know about the plans of terrorist attacks a week before the attack and then could not prevent them, how could they know all such details a week after.

Dear Arooj! I am always nervous about angry reactions by people and nations that are motivated by revenge because they keep the cycle of violence going. I am all in favour of ending violence and terrorism but I believe that the victims should not take the law into their own hands. That is why we have United Nations, international organizations and courts to investigate acts of violence so that all people involved are tried and brought to justice. I always felt that the American Government rather than helping the United Nations to do her job became a hindrance. Because of that the world is losing confidence in the institution of the United Nations. I am afraid that President Bush by declaring war is planning to kill more innocent men and women and such an act will continue the cycle of violence. I always believed in a legal, moral and political solution to violence and terrorism rather than a military solution.

I believe that it is sad that thousands of innocent men and women died in terrorist attacks and we need to give time to the grieving families to mourn rather than declaring war on half of the world. Killing more people does not bring the dead ones back. I feel the same about those people who believe in capital punishment. If we kill the killer, we, as a community are doing the same thing that we criticize.

A famous Persian poet Omar Khattam once wrote

          If with evil you punish the evil I have done

          Pray tell, what is the difference between you and me

                                                                   Affectionately  Sohail

 Sep 21, 2001.