Political Columnists Miss the Mark in Terror Debate

Your “Left Said/Right Said” excels in offering the disappointing shallowness that college newspapers are so predictably famous for. I’m referring to the Jan. 5 issue, where a “liberal” columnist debated a “conservative” about whether Barack Obama or George W. Bush has more effectively waged the so-called War on Terror.

Both of them accept the legitimacy of the central framework the government gives us, they just nit pick around the monetary cost to maintaining our two brutal occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, “American lives,” and the corresponding “consequences for American national security.” Vomit! The U.S. invasion of Iraq was not a “mistake” — it was an unprovoked war crime based on sheer lies.

There was not a single mention of the Military Commissions Act or the extraordinary torture and wanton suffering inflicted on people in the Middle East who had nothing to do with 9/11. There’s no need to question the imperialist strategies that inform this whole endless war, which was planned way before 9/11.

Allow me to pitch the next “Left Said/Right Said” topics:

Should U.S. military interrogators be able to crush the testicles of a young boy in order to get valuable information from his “suspected terrorist” father, as Bush lawyer John Yoo argued, or is some good old waterboarding enough?

What should “we” do with undocumented immigrants: expel them all, build bigger detention centers or guarantee their more effective exploitation through guest worker programs?

Is sending 35,000 more troops to Afghanistan the right move, or should Obama have heeded the Vice President’s proposal of increasing the number of unmanned drone bombings?

I can’t wait to read the deep analysis your editorial staff can cough up on these questions that are so vital to the safety and security of the American government.

Students who actually want to discuss and make plans on how to stop these unjust wars and side with the people of the world should check out SB Anti-War meetings on Fridays at 5 p.m. at Biko House on Sueno Road. Caution: Attending might expose you to the dangerous notion that American lives are not more important than the lives of others.

Print