A War in a Dead End Street

CNA-News from November 6, 2001:

What has America’s war against Afghanistan actually accomplished so far? A war, with which the German Chancellor declares “unlimited solidarity,” over and over again, almost as a ritual. In more than 1000 bombing sorties, the ruins of one of the poorest countries in the world have been further pulverized, 2 military hospitals have been destroyed, villages have been hit, civilians killed, of course, also soldiers, even from the ranks of the their own allies, the so-called Northern Alliance. The American Secretary of Defense goes regularly before the press to announce that everything is running according to plan. Unlimited solidarity, everything according to plan – and so each has his mantra, with which he tries to soothe his conscience and his people. But the American, amazed, had to admit that the resistance of the Taliban is stronger than expected. And even more: He admitted that it was possible that they would not find enemy number one, Osama bin Laden.

Anyone who until now thought that the super-power, which sent an entire armada to Asia, is endowed with higher wisdom, must now realize that its strategy is taking place at the political level of a regular’s table in a local pub. When one is attacked, one just has to strike back – somehow, even when this leads to a senseless shoot-out; even when it no longer has much to do with self-defense, because one doesn’t even hit the attackers; even when the danger of new strikes is not lessened but increased, because one provokes new strikes – from foreign regions or even from one’s own country.

How long do we still want to declare “unlimited solidarity” with all this, without being unlimitedly foolish? Loyalty to the alliance with America should not be confused with zealous standing at attention before Big Brother. It also includes the right and the obligation to point out to him that he is bombing himself and the world into a dangerous dead-end.

Prudence is presently again being replaced with the motto: We have started and can now no longer go back. Like an undertow current, this statement is an old well-known law of every war. It leads to more and more escalation. The more civilians are killed, the louder the Friday demonstrations of the Islamic world will become. If the bombardments are continued during Ramadan, this can become the fuse for a worldwide explosion.

The strategists from Washington to Berlin have dramatically miscalculated. It is still not too late to turn back. But this assumes self-reflection and reconsideration and self-possession that are not to be found at the NATO local pub table. To say nothing of respecting for the ethics that each one of the many has learned who call themselves “Christian” and want to derive their party name from the word Christian. Christ warned already 2000 years ago: The one who takes up the sword will perish by the sword. This holds true not only for Islamists, but also for Americans. Apparently they now want to test in Afghanistan whether the law of sowing and reaping also holds true for them. Do the Europeans want to let themselves be drawn into this? How would it be if one were to finally take the teachings of the Nazarene seriously? What would this mean? One would not seek retaliation, but would first think about what is behind the Islamic terrorism. One cannot simply equate their running amok, as little as one can justify it, with the pure lust to destroy. The question: “Why do you hate us so much?” would go further than the bombardment of a country that is already destroyed. Political conversations with the international leaders of the Islamic world can not be avoided in the long run by the Americans and their allies, because this worldwide movement cannot be calmed down with bombs. The aversion to such a dialogue, and the concern of giving in by taking up such a dialogue, are a sign of weakness. Right from the start it blocks the possibility of healing the wounds that led to the worldwide Islamic terrorism – from Algiers to Luxor, Där es Saläam and Nairobi all the way to New York and Washington. To these wounds also belong the Palestinian problem in the Mid East, the stationing of American troops in Saudi Arabia and the inhuman embargo against Iraq, which does not harm Saddam Hussein, but only his people. The one who calls himself Christian cannot always push the Sermon on the Mount to the side whenever things get serious. Perhaps he cannot love his enemies right away, but he must talk to them in any case.

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