A TIME FOR PEACE, NOT RETALIATION

At TomPaine.com, Elijah Wald writes that this is A time for peace, not retaliation: If we want a safer world in this situation, we cannot achieve it militarily. For decades, the United States has acted as if, as the world’s most powerful nation, it could safely explore violent solutions to international issues, while itself remaining inviolate. Every time the United States has bombed a major city — be it Hiroshima, Hanoi, Baghdad, or Tripoli — people on the ground must have wished that they could do the same to New York or Washington. As United States operatives facilitated and supported murderous, terrorist regimes throughout Latin America, Africa, and Asia, millions of “innocent” civilians must, in their pain and anger, have wished that similar death and destruction could be visited on us. As we learned in Oklahoma City, such feelings are felt even here in the United States, raging at deadly governmental assaults on homegrown cults and militias.