Targeting Terrorists
If it made any sense to bomb terrorist training centers, then an ideal target would be the
School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Georgia. In their 52 year history,
they may well have trained more terrorists than any school in the world.
Graduates of this U.S. Army, who include Latin America's most notorious
human rights abusers, have been cited for carrying out massacres, rape, murder, extortion and torture.
Certainly the bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania was despicable, but the eye
for an eye approach exemplified by U.S attacks on suspected terrorist centers in Afghanistan
and Sudan will only bring more violence and further endanger innocent people. While our schools teach children
to use words, not fists, our government shows them how to resolve conflicts
with violence in the name of national security. Does this lesson really make our playgrounds
more safe and our communities more secure? When will we finally listen to Dr. Kings words:
"One day we must see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek but a means by which
we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful means."
We'll be targeting terrorists, but not with bombs, when we gather outside the gates of Fort Benning
in November. Surely those who choose non-violent civil disobedience as a weapon
against an institution which has shamed our country, show greater patriotism and promise
of lasting peace and security than those who drop bombs in our name.
Judy Wicks
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