I strongly disagree with Rachel Faber Machacha’s opinions of stopping a war because of a sacred holiday. To start, you don’t let the enemy get a break because there is a holiday. We are at war. To fight a war effectively you need to keep your enemy down and not let him back up. Obviously if you agree with the United States’ war on terrorism, this makes sense. If you don’t agree, then Ramadan would be an excuse to stop the war.

The United States has many so-called “allies” but the ones we can count on will stick with us while we continue to fight the Taliban. I guarantee our other “allies” will be pissed at us, no matter what we do. Some of these allies are Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia continually talks trash about us. They seem to forget we saved them about 10 years ago. How quickly people forget. Their media is controlled by their government and that government is very anti-American.

Certain countries in the Middle East will give us hell no matter what. We have to be strong as a nation and take the crap we receive while still obtaining our military goals.

It is stupid to think the people we are fighting would stop fighting us because Christmas was coming around the corner. I suppose if we stopped the war for Ramadan, Bin Laden would respect our holidays. I think not. The risk will be high during the upcoming holidays no matter what. The risk to America will be high until we destroy terrorism. The Northern Alliance and Taliban have been fighting during Ramadan for years.

Throughout history, attacks on holidays have been common. The Tet offensive, the Battle of the Bulge and the attack on Israel during Yom Kippur are obvious examples. When fighting a war you must not show weakness. If you are fighting a war, I would think the goal is to win and to win you go all out. America is showing unbelievable restraint.

Helping the Afghanistan civilians with food and supplies is very generous, as well as trying to minimize civilian casualties. This in itself makes the war much harder for the United States to win. I agree with helping the people of Afghanistan, but that comes after other military concerns are dealt with.

Sadly, diplomacy will not work in this situation. Diplomacy in the war on terrorism is not respected by our enemies; it is laughed at. Diplomacy is used by our enemies to lie over and over again to stir up anti-American sentiment. Our government can’t bargain with the Taliban, who are not only are enemies of America, but liars as well.

I must say I do not know how to destroy terrorism. I would have to agree with Senator John McCain that bombing alone will not win us the war. He stresses the use of infantry and that American lives will be lost. This is a sad fact of war, but I think our government will make the right decisions. I have strong confidence in our government. They have done a good job so far of fighting the war on terrorism, and I think many other United States citizens would agree.

Sean Schmidt

Senior

Political science