Many innocent people will die if America bombs Afghanistan

I am surprised at the one-sidedness of the press coverage of the World Trade Centre attack.

It is, of course, reassuring that so much human sympathy has been extended worldwide for the suffering of Americans subjected to this horrible attack, and it proves the basic popularity of America and Americans. Nevertheless, I would like to know a lot more about why 20 Arabs decided to sacrifice their lives to attack the United States Government and business establishment. Historically, this kind of terrorism is a product of resistance to imperialism. For example, Osama bin Laden was being paid by the US to help drive out the Soviets when they occupied Afghanistan.

For decades, Vietnamese terrorists and troops fought the French and Americans to free themselves from foreign domination. If this pattern is typical, then the use of overwhelming force against poor countries that perceive themselves oppressed is more likely to be the cause of terrorism than its cure. Yet the US is apparently about to attack Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest and weakest countries.

Common sense says that such bombing will kill few terrorists but that a lot of ordinary folk who are as innocent as those in the World Trade Centre will die. Perhaps the most dangerous terrorists are those already in the US waiting their next assignment. Surely the Pentagon would not bomb its own cities to kill terrorists? American dignity demands that Afghan civilians are treated with the same preciousness as US civilians.

President George W. Bush clearly views his country as Christian. I wonder what Jesus Christ would have thought about the US military preparations. The Pentagon is in danger of making a habit out of relentlessly bombing the inhabitants of small, defenceless countries. Surely a country with the huge resources of America can find a way to change its relations with Third World countries so that terrorism does not arise in the first place.

I hope the Western media will start running the Arab view of the story, so that all of us may learn more about what might intelligently and peacefully be done to reduce terrorism.

ROSS MILBURN

Chai Wan