Imagine how the past might have changed our present circumstances if we had “bombed” Afghans with loaves of bread after 9/11
The author said several good things in her letter about the need to forgive those who have sinned against us and how central forgiveness is to Christian doctrine. She used that to lead into her main point, which was about Afghanistan.
Needless to say, her statement is foolishness, showing she is completely ignorant of history.
Turning the other cheek and forgiving does not, has never, and will never work with murderous tyrants. This is a lesson that the world should have learned thousands of years ago, but should really be burned into our collective minds by the disastrous policies that led to World War II.
England and France tried to achieve "peace in our time" after Nazi Germany invaded the Sudetenland. That failed, because Adolf Hitler was not interested in peace. He was interested in conquest and building an empire. Wishing to avoid conflict, the allies allowed Hitler to build his military strength and to become stronger. By the time the Nazis invaded Poland, it was too late. Hitler's Germany was far too powerful and it took an enormous effort and cost many more lives than would have been required had the Allies drew a line in the sand years earlier.
Much like Hitler, Osama bin Laden is not interested in peace. Muslim terrorists are not interested in peace. They are interested in a global jihad to build a Muslim empire, and in slaughtering anyone who gets in their way. If they accomplish this goal, one of the first people to be killed will be the author of that LTTE, who will most likely be shocked when gestures of "compassion" are met with a sword. The only thing Muslim terrorists understand is violence and death. You cannot negotiate with these people. You can only defeat them and deter them from attacking you.
"Peace" activists love to lump the Iraq and Afghan wars together. It is a terrible comparison.
The invasion of Iraq was a pre-emptive war. We were concerned about credible evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ties to terrorist groups, so we attacked Iraq before they could attack us. I supported the war, and came to realize two years ago that I was wrong.
We made a huge blunder with the preemptive invasion of a sovereign nation which had not attacked us. Saddam Hussein may have been evil, but he was not stupid or suicidal. Our nuclear deterrent would have been enough to contain Hussein and prevent him from attacking us with WMD, just like it had been for the previous 12 years. If the logic behind the Iraq war was sound, Should we invade and replace the government of every country that has WMD and could potentially use them against us, including China or North Korea?
The war in Afghanistan is nowhere near the same thing. We were attacked on our own soil on September 11 by war criminals determined to kill as many innocent people as possible. The people behind these war crimes were sheltered and protected by the government of Afghanistan, which makes the Taliban as guilty as al Qaida. Our invasion of Afghanistan was in direct retaliation for the attack on us by Muslim terrorists. We did not ask for this war, but we owe it to the victims of 9/11, and to freedom around the world, to win it.
