Recent events have brought back a memory of my days in Kindergarten. I was playing with a set of blocks, carefully constructing a high tower, when a fellow student came by and knocked down the tower, sending a cascade of blocks onto my head. Stunned, I began to cry. Our kindergarten teacher soon recognized the situation and a suitable punishment was dealt to the offending student, in an attempt to show him that such behavior is not permitted in the classroom.
The American people, and freedom-loving people across the globe, have shed tears over a great injustice. They look to their leaders, not for retaliation, but for a bold stand against the perpetrators, letting them know that they were wrong, and that their actions will not be tolerated.
I realize that my digression into childhood is a gross oversimplification of recent events. I give my apologies if my analogy makes the matter seem trite or easily explained, for it certainly is not so. I feel that it may take such a simple story, however, to illustrate the sometimes subtle, and often confused, difference between vengeance and justice.
As I sat there amidst the pile of blocks, I did not seek or desire vengeance. What I needed was for someone to say, "This behavior is wrong and will not be tolerated." If you listen to the speeches that President Bush has been making, and you remove the image of a ranting redneck that many associate with him, it is clear that the words he has spoken point towards justice and not the settling of scores.
Many Americans have been asking themselves the very question that Bethany Arrand, in her recent viewpoint, "Don't Kill for Me" (9/25), has suggested we ask ourselves: "What is it that [I did] wrong, that has caused someone to hate [me] so much?" That is the very question I was asking myself, and the ultimate cause of my tears in the Kindergarten playroom.
For many Americans, the sadness comes when they find there is no answer to that question that could possibly warrant such a savage act, and leaves them with the hope of the small, but necessary, consolation that justice will bring.
If one places the prospect of war before my eyes, I will tremble. The thought of sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers of loved ones being killed, both here and in a distant country, can make even the strongest of men and women shudder with fear and bring pangs of sorrow. I am not, however, scared by the prospect of 91 percent of the country in favor of military action.
Having an overwhelming majority of our country in support of the government's plans is a powerful display of a representative democracy in action. This makes me glad to live under such a system of government. There are two difficult facts that we must face. The first is that sometimes war, regardless of how horrible it may be, is at times a tragic necessity in this world.
Our involvement in a war at this time could be debated, and one could even persuade me that now is not the time for war if it were not for this second fact: the war already began with the attack on New York City. If Osama bin Laden, under the protection of the Taliban, had arranged for fighter jets to breach US security and take the lives of over 6,000 civilians, it would be taken as a declaration of war. Such a course of action and the events of Sept. 11 differ only in the degree of cowardliness associated with each one.
It is a foundational truth across systems of government and religions around the world that the deliberate taking of innocent life for one's own gain is wrong. It is further accepted that one who aids in such a shameless act shares in the guilt of the perpetrator.
If the Taliban continues to protect and defend bin Laden, it is not only pronounced "evil" by the standards of the US, but pronounced "evil" by the pillars of basic human rights and culpability that all in this world hold in common. Bethany Arrand has stated that forcing the Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden would be in violation of its religious rights. I am a strong supporter of religious rights, but such rights cannot be allowed to trample on the rights of the innocent to live.
I recall in the Second World War, how the US and its allies put what the Third Reich called its religious rights aside in order liberate the innocent who had been persecuted under these rights.
The attack on America has brought us up against the unfortunate reality of war. It is only natural that any who protect or defend those who attempted to start war with our country be dealt with as the enemy in a time of war.
I don't believe in vengeance. I do not believe it is the responsibility of the US to take innocent lives for the sake of killing in order to even the score. It is time, however, for the US to do whatever it takes to do in what my kindergarten teacher did; showing that such behavior is not tolerated, and will not be allowed to continue.
Andrew Tupaj is a graduate student in the department of electrical engineering.
