OUR HONOLULU
No replays, please — just serious reflection
| • | Security presence boosted, but no direct threat here |
| • | U.S. braces for another attack |
| • | Hawai'i dreams died one year ago |
| • | Attacks put Hawai'i troops on front line |
| • | Hawai'i values impelled 9/11 hero |
| • | Sept. 11 anniversary events |
| • | Readers reflect |
| • | Special report: 9/11... One Year, One Nation |
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Share your thoughts as the country observes the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack |
By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist
On this first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, I'll do my best not to see a picture of an airliner crashing into a building. It's too painful a memory. I don't want to relive it.
Frankly, the rush to find meaning in that catastrophe leaves me frustrated because it's so obvious, yet it's being ignored. If Sept. 11 and its aftermath taught us anything, it is that we are vulnerable and that the way to fight terrorism is through cooperative effort, not arrogance.
The basic reason for what success we have had in removing a terroristic regime from Afghanistan is that an impressive number of nations joined with us in a coalition that would have been impossible before Sept. 11.
We couldn't possibly have done that by ourselves. Pakistan, China, Russia and regimes in the region that concerns us either stood aside or pitched in to help. To take all the credit for ourselves is arrogant behavior.
It seems incredible to me that members of the Bush administration have apparently already forgotten this lesson. There's a light year of difference between going into Afghanistan to topple the Taliban and going into Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein.
- The blatant cruelty of killing thousands of innocent civilians on Sept. 11 was abundantly visible to the world. People of many political and cultural persuasions, including Islamic, recognized a threat to themselves.
- By comparison, the threat presented to everybody by Saddam's regime is a chronic case of influenza. It's been around for a long time. So what's new?
- Before U.S. forces went into Afghanistan, an unparalleled number of disparate nations lined up in support of our action.
- By comparison, an unparalleled number of disparate nations are lining up in opposition to a U.S. war on Iraq. That includes most of Europe and all the Arab nations. England is our only ally.
- To my mind, the wild card in this deck is the Muslim world. Our traditional support of Israel on the Pales-tinian issue has been a constant irritant to Arab nations. The United States is the favorite whipping boy of Arab activists. It took the horror of Sept. 11 to permit Arab regimes to support the U.S. policy.
- By comparison, an invasion of Iraq by the United States will give Arab radicals abundant ammunition to declare Bush a worse menace to world peace than Saddam.
If all of this saber-rattling is intended to scare Saddam into admitting arms inspectors unconditionally, I'd say the administration is smarter than I thought. But fallout along the way has been expensive.
Meanwhile, there's a little matter of Osama bin Laden. I thought he's the fellow we are after. Would it be discourteous to ask why we're shifting gears? Have we forgotten who got us into this mess?
Well, I'll hope for the best. But please don't show me any more pictures.
Reach Bob Krauss at 525-0873.
