By Mary Morley
NewsNet Staff Writer
Talk of war has dominated both national headlines and conversations on campus since the horrific terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. Americans across the nation and members of the BYU community alike are filled with profound sadness and blind rage that call for retaliation against whoever attacked the country.
After all, whoever is behind the terrorism not only targeted thousands of people in the buildings they destroyed, but truth, justice, and the American way. And they did it on American soil. President Bush even called the attacks 'an act of war.'
So Americans demand a war. A war on terrorism. There's only problem: No one knows who the enemy is. Is it Osama bin Laden? If so, will there still be a war if Afghanistan hands over bin Laden? Is Afghanistan the enemy? The Taliban?
If the war America is on the verge of waging is against terrorism, how is it possible to know when to claim victory? A war against a faceless and a nameless enemy cannot be won.
If victory meant capturing bin Laden, the 'war' could be over before it ever started. Most experts agree, however, that the war on terrorism must include ending state sponsorship of terrorism.
So Americans are calling for a war in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, they may not realize what they are demanding. A war in Afghanistan will most likely not be clean, as was Desert Storm. The military will not be able to bomb the country into submission with relatively few casualties on either side.
Instead, American forces will find, as Soviet and British forces found before them, that a war in Afghanistan will be costly and deadly.
War in Afghanistan is like war in Vietnam. The military can't tell which of the Afghanis are the enemy and which are supporters. We have to fight them on ground level, in their homeland, and we don't know how.
Perhaps BYU students are quite willing to die for their country to protect more innocent Americans from dying. Maybe the fathers of these students, men who refuse to talk about the nightmarish time they spent in Vietnam and are still plagued by post-traumatic stress disorder, would be less cavalier about rushing into a war that is similar to Vietnam in so many respects.
American policymakers must carefully analyze all the aspects of the terrible situation that faces them. They must figure out the best way to resolve the problem and stop terrorism and the senseless death that follows terrorism.
But if they decide war is the only defense, they must also realize many more Americans will die before the war is over.