Shawn Beard, in his letter Friday, said, “[Anti-war protesters] propose we negotiate with these [the Taliban] rather than fight them. But how do you negotiate with religious fanatics who believe that what they are doing gets them in good graces with God?”

The rest of the world could well ask the same thing of Americans. Bush has refused to negotiate three times and portrayed enemies as evil without listening to anything they say.

In some definitions, refusing to listen to anything, reasonable or otherwise, is fanatic. On Oct. 14, the Taliban’s second-ranked official, Maulvi Abdul Kabir, said that if the United States stopped bombing, “we would be ready to hand [bin Laden] over to a third country. If proof is provided, a third country could be chosen which is under the influence of neither the United States nor the Taliban.” Bush said in response, “When I said no negotiations, I meant no negotiations.” And to providing evidence of bin Laden’s guilt? “We know he’s guilty.”

When it comes to our own politics, we won’t stand for any neutral parties. The Bush administration’s stance is also interesting in that the United States argues its own sovereignty while saying that any country harboring terrorists is a prime target for being attacked.

The United States seems to be forgetting its Timothy McVeighs, its neo-Nazis, its Theodore Kazcynskis and its renamed School of the Americas.

Many more people have been killed worldwide with the funding of the U.S. government than were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. Or through America’s embargo on Iraq and the subsequent starvation of Iraqi children. These, like the victims in the World Trade Center, are non-combatants.

To call instead for a fair trial of bin Laden by a neutral party and for analysis of the underlying causes of terrorism is very realistic in that it best deters future loss of life, American and otherwise. To further make Muslim nations feel that U.S. policy is hypocritical is to fuel terrorist sentiment. The more you try to kill terrorists, the more terrorists sprout.

Katherine Westholm

Junior

History