LATimes

AMERICA'S COURSE Of War...

By DREW LIMSKY, Drew Limsky teaches at City University of New York

NEW YORK -- In the last few days, we've heard more than a few calls for peace from clerics, from grieving New Yorkers in Union Square, from talky intellectuals on TV, from Madonna. We've heard warnings not to escalate the violence by retaliating, even pleas to forgive the hijackers.

A multidenominational service, attended by some 300 people, many of whom had lost family members and friends in the attack on the World Trade Center, was held at Mt. Sinai Temple in Brooklyn Heights. This is an enclave within sight of the still-smoldering wreckage, a neighborhood that lost eight firefighters who went out on the first call for help. At one point in the service, mourners were asked to call out the names of the missing and the dead, and it seemed as if the names would never stop. In the front pew, the parents of a 32-year-old man who had worked at the World Trade Center were inconsolable. Of the clerics invited to speak, a Catholic monsignor used the word "forgiveness" many times; a minister warned against hitting back and thus becoming our enemies. On TV, I watched author Jonathan Franzen, in a roundtable discussion with writers Maya Angelou and David Halberstam, looking smugly superior as he said, "I hope we don't go down the same road as the Gulf War with military action." (He also said that he knew we were going to be fine, because he saw people "buying pants in Banana Republic.") When I repeated Franzen's comments to a writer friend, he agreed with Franzen and said that the U.S. Senate vote to support President Bush reminded him of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that entangled us in the Vietnam War. My friend was probably misinterpreting something Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said on National Public Radio, namely, that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution taught us to be wary of giving the president unlimited powers. But whereas McCain seemed worried about guarding the Senate's turf, my friend clearly meant to take the pacifist position.

What my friend seemed to miss is that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was a fabricated incident, manufactured to build support for a military action in response to events that did not directly threaten our country. I watched the twin towers burn from my balcony; I have been within two blocks of the gnarled graveyard of ground zero; a friend at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. was safely evacuated, but I know someone who has to attend dozens of funerals for all those guys who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald. The distinction between the Gulf of Tonkin and the WTC is not a fine one, and it is the height of irresponsibility, however well-intentioned, not to make it.

Many on the left, as well as some religious leaders, must assume that if we don't strike back, the terrorists will have the kind of epiphany that one finds in literature: They'll follow our noble lead, suddenly see the value of human life and look for other careers. But life isn't literature, isn't like one of Franzen's novels. There is nothing in recent history to suggest that Sept. 11's carnage sated the bloodlust of the Islamic terrorist network, nor the appetites of their sympathizers who were filmed dancing in the street in places like Paterson, N.J.

Some on the far left are quick to look for fault in U.S. policies--specifically, U.S. support for Israel--to explain what happened, as if we can apply logic to the actions of madmen. In Manhattan, an actress known for her support of liberal causes was heard railing, "What do you expect? America doesn't know anything about what's going on in the world." Public figures like this movie star are quick to get on their soap boxes about spousal abuse, date rape and homophobia (and rightly so), yet see America as the problem when we are dealing with cultures and countries that have institutionalized the subjugation of women and the imprisonment of gays.

We've heard the sympathetic claims that the Islamic world is trying to preserve its pure, authentic way of life, and that the terrorists are desperately reacting against the world dominance of the dollar, U.S. power and the permissive effects of American popular culture. Interesting. Some of the suspected terrorists celebrated the demise of the United States in a Florida strip bar, while downing shots and tipping lap dancers.

That the U.S. favors Israel over the Palestinians is also a frequent refrain on the left. Never mind that Israel is the only democratic country in the region, or that the Israelis have returned to the Palestinians much of the land they thought was stolen from them. Never mind that Israel doesn't blow up buses of schoolchildren to make a point. Never mind that Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat reportedly rejected a deal overseen by former President Clinton that acceded to 95% of the Palestinian demands. Trying to apply reason to terrorist actions and motivations is nave and dangerous. Looking for our own flaws in the face of these horrific attacks is a disgusting perversion of any moral code.

As our nation's leaders of both parties understand, Sept. 11's terror cannot be explained by citing our policies, our movies or Israel; it was about trying to bring down Western civilization, to destroy humanity as we know it. Those who worry about us becoming more like our enemies miss the more immediate problem--of our becoming dust.

-- Anonymous, September 23, 2001