By Leo Wallach
Daily Bruin Contributor
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks prompted immediate calls for
justice by White House officials and many Americans ““ but
whether justice was served by Sunday’s retaliatory strikes
against Afghanistan is still a matter of debate.
Many Americans support the attacks, but the risk to innocent
lives and lingering doubts about the true perpetrator of the Sept.
11 attacks have cast a shadow over public support for
Sunday’s military operations.
Most believe military strikes were inevitable.
“There must be some effort to stop this growing terrorist
cancer,” said political science professor Steven Spiegel.
“We have no option but to take this kind of
action.”
Many across the nation agreed.
“It’s definitely something they have to do,”
said Denis Perelyubskiy, a graduate student in the computer science
department, who was also concerned about injuring innocent Afghan
people.
“There are a lot of people (in Afghanistan) who
don’t particularly care for the Taliban,” he said.
Similar statements were made in Fremont, Calif., the
nation’s largest Afghan community.
“The good thing is, I am happy they started, and the bad
thing is, I don’t want civilians dead for nothing,”
Homayoun Khamosh, a Fremont resident and owner of the Pamir Food
Mart, said to the Associated Press.
President Bush addressed these fears in his speech to the nation
Sunday.
“As we strike military targets, we will also drop food,
medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women
and children of Afghanistan,” he said.
Washington indicated that Sunday’s strikes are only the
first step in a broader military effort.
“This is the first stage of a long campaign,” said
House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.
The potential for a long, deadly war has left some skeptical of
the United States’ ability to protect Afghan civilians.
Meena Said, a former UCLA undergraduate who will attend UCLA
School of Medicine, said a long war could have catastrophic
humanitarian consequences in Afghanistan. Said spent time this
summer doing volunteer work at Afghan refugee camps inside
Pakistan.
“The camps already had no sewage, no health care,”
she said, adding that while the refugees had fled Afghanistan for
various reasons, most fled because of a “lack of ability to
sustain themselves and their families.”
There has been a refugee crisis in Afghanistan since the Soviet
Union invaded in 1979.
Said said a new war would be particularly devastating to the
civilian population because after 20 years of war, Afghanistan is
in much worse shape than it was at the beginning of the Soviet
invasions.
The Bush administration has said that one goal of the military
operations is to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people under
Taliban rule by shifting the balance of power toward anti-Taliban
forces, such as the Northern Alliance.
Some question whether there should be any military campaign in
Afghanistan at all.
Political science professor Michael Intriligator questions
whether the proper suspects have been targeted. He said bin Laden
may not be responsible for the attacks.
“I don’t think he had the means and
opportunity,” he said. “Bin Laden has admitted guilt in
earlier attacks but not here.”
Most government officials and terrorism experts believe bin
Laden was involved in planning the attack. Spiegel said the
evidence that has been released points to bin Laden and his
Al-Qaeda network as the perpetrators.
Bin Laden has praised the Sept. 11 attacks but denies personal
involvement.
With reports from The Associated Press.