No dressing up the real reasons behind war

No dressing up the real reasons behind war

October 18, 2001

'Smatter Of Fact
By Katharhynn Heidelberg

A good number of people around the world think of the Sept. 11 attack, and agree, however tacitly, that it’s a matter of a "holy war."

It’s not. It is the matter of a hateful man playing on the deeply held beliefs of others, and convincing them to wreak mayhem on the world. It is, in short, the matter of maniacs crashing planes into buildings and committing murder.

Although the act has since been cloaked in religious rhetoric, it was driven by hatred: Osama bin Laden wants to kill Americans. He couldn’t care less what religion we are; it’s just that presenting the conflict as "cross versus crescent" is a convenient way to divide people. Why are we letting the villain dictate the terms of this conflict?

More fundamentally, why do we even accept that war — safely defined as an act of wholesale violence for one cause or another — can be holy? One would think that thousands of years of human history would have taught us otherwise; that we would have by now gotten the point.

One need think only of the "Crusades." This series of wars began in A.D. 1095, and was, in essence, a war in the name of the Prince of Peace. This rhetoric was used to seduce the masses — including women, including children — into traveling halfway around the world and slaughtering the "heathen" in order to "save" the Holy Land.

The faith of the common Crusader was sincere, but it was misused by the "brains" behind the operation — European religious and secular leaders. The issues for them were land and money, and on the backs of those whom they used indiscriminately as "cannon fodder," they gained plenty of both.

In 2001, an irrational, hatred-spewing lunatic is also using the spirituality of others as a means to an end. Bin Laden is urging poor, disaffected masses to take up the "cause" of Islam. He knows full well that these masses are the least equipped to fight, and the least likely to survive a war. He knows full well too, that one does not have to be hit by a missile to become a war victim.

Thanks to the dictatorship of the Taliban, the average Afghani hasn’t got the means to escape shelling, is hungry and is oppressed. But the shelling itself? That’s courtesy Uncle Sam. The Taliban and bin Laden have responded by digging in their heels. Uncle Sam has responded with more air strikes.

These strikes have indeed killed civilians. According to Naseebullah Khan, a factory worker in Kandahar, "It’s not true that the Americans have only been bombing military targets. Many of the bombs are dropping on residential neighborhoods." By Oct. 9, four innocent victims were confirmed dead; now the confirmed number has exceeded 20. The unconfirmed number (provided by the Taliban and therefore suspect) is over 100. Regardless the number, though, these people were as innocent as those who died in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon.

Meanwhile, the average Western Muslim — along with those who "look" Muslim — is being victimized by racism. Other victims include the opposition forces in Afghanistan, who are relying on U.S. commitment for the long term. They are going to be used, then shafted. All this will take place in the name of a "war" unlikely to render up the guilty party, but guaranteed to destroy the lives of people on both sides and further destabilize an already shaky region.

But the simple truth is, bin Laden doesn’t care. He is content to let those to whom he has lied do his dirty work, and it pleases him to call this behavior holy. It pleases him to believe that murder, terror and the wholesale betrayal of every Muslim who swallows his lies is approved of by Allah. After all, history proves the faithful have been duped before.

What we must hope for is that the faithful everywhere wise up in a hurry. What we pray for is that Allah sends bin Laden the same message He sent medieval Crusaders: He is not to be used as a tool for cowards.