Letter to friends and colleagues
George Capaccio with a family of Iraqi children in Baghdad,
1999
From George Capaccio (writer, teacher, anti-sanctions
activist—Salaamg@aol.com)
September 17, 2001
I join you today in mourning the loss of so many innocent lives in last
week’s attack. My heart, like yours, is heavy with sorrow and grief.
And like you, I struggle to grasp the enormity and horror of what has
befallen us. Thankfully, I have not lost a loved one. I cannot even begin
to imagine the pain and shock of those who have.
In my neighborhood, as no doubt in yours, almost every home displays our
country’s flag in recognition, I suppose, of the bond, the loss,
and the grief we share in common. Coming together at such a time is a
necessary and crucial part of healing. We have lost so many. Our wounds
are deep and terrible. If for the time being we can see no way to make
sense of our suffering, at least we can be united in our sorrow and our
outrage, united in the hope that never again will we suffer such a blow.
Too many, I fear, believe the solace we collectively seek is to be found
in war. By force of arms, we hope our wounds shall be healed, our strength
restored, our suffering, if not redeemed, at least made more bearable
knowing our foe has suffered as much as we.
How hard it is for we Americans to see, at this time, the futility of
war. Our media, as it did during the Gulf War, serves only to inspire
hysteria, jingoism, and xenophobia. Major cable and broadcast networks
parade before our eyes a simplistic view of what has happened Rarely does
a reporter or commentator ask why the United States was attacked. To do
so, of course, would raise disturbing questions about our conduct in the
world.
Certainly our political leadership is no less invested in keeping us in
the dark. President Bush would be committing political suicide were he
to refrain from calling for retaliation. But I wonder how future generations
would characterize a leader who resisted such a call, whatever the risks
to his career, and called instead for prudence and restraint and the hard
work of discernment.
There is much to see and understand about our way of being in the world
and about the way others see us. Of course, we Americans would like nothing
more than to see ourselves as a benign nation, a chosen people who, if
we err, do so from an excess of virtue. If this is true, then why on earth
would anyone want to attack us unless they are the very embodiment of
evil bent on destroying our civic institutions, our economy, and the freedoms
we have sacrificed so much to preserve.
I trust you will understand, friends, that I too regard Tuesday’s
attack as an unconscionable and unjustifiable act of terror. The perpetrators
must be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As for
waging war against a country like Afghanistan or, for that matter, any
country that harbors or supports terrorists, I say such a course is wrong-headed
and doomed to failure. As long as the causes of terrorism remain unexamined
and unaddressed, no amount of military force will suffice to keep us safe.
We have only to look at our history to understand why so many people in
the Middle East and elsewhere in the world bear so much ill-will toward
our political and military institutions. The history of which I speak
is not the story of a freedom-loving democracy that stands always on the
side of the downtrodden and oppressed. I wish with all my heart that story
were true. If it were, then I would not be writing this letter. Indeed,
if it were true, Tuesday’s tragedy would in all likelihood not have
taken place.
A connection
I maintain that there is a strong, albeit tragic connection between our
conduct in the world and the events of Tuesday, September 11. This is
not in any way to justify these events but rather to examine them in the
light of our government’s behavior toward developing countries. Consider
just a few examples of what I would describe as our aggressive, interventionist
foreign policy from the end of the Second World War to the present:
—Overthrowing the democratically elected government of Guatemala
in 1954 in favor of one more disposed toward our economic interests.
—Supporting the 1973 coup that led to the murder of Salvador Allende
in Chile and the rise of Augusto Pinochet.
—Setting up a puppet regime in South Vietnam, invading that country,
then carrying on a protracted war that can best be described as one of
the worst atrocities of the 20th century.
—Providing military, economic, and diplomatic support to repressive
regimes in central and south America throughout the seventies and eighties;
training and in other ways supporting Salvadoran security forces responsible
for assassinating Archbishop Romero in 1980 and six Jesuit priests in
1989 primarily because of their commitment to social justice.
—Equipping an army of terrorists (the Contras) who made a policy
of attacking "soft targets" such as schools, hospitals, orphanages
in the 1980’s; mining Nicaragua’s harbor in defiance of a World
Court injunction against such an action.
—Invading Panama in 1989 and killing perhaps as many as one to two
thousand innocent civilians, the poorest of the poor, who happened to
be in harm’s way when our troops landed.
—Waging war against Iraq in 1991 ostensibly because of that country’s
invasion of Kuwait; killing tens of thousands of Iraqis, most of them
civilians; destroying that country’s infrastructure with the use
of the most advanced weaponry yet invented; deliberately targeting the
water treatment plants and electrical system; enforcing a decade-long
embargo that has led to the deaths of an estimated 500,000 children from
water-borne diseases and malnutrition; conducting bombing runs over north
and south Iraq from 1998 to the present, ostensibly to protect Kurds and
Shias in the so-called "no fly zones," while killing several
hundred people in the process.
—Blowing up a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan in 1998 with cruise missiles.
The attack was in response to terrorist attacks against our embassies.
At the time, President Clinton stated that this plant produced weapons.
No evidence to support this charge has ever surfaced. Shortly after the
plant was hit, a plague broke out in Sudan. There were no drugs to treat
the victims. We may never know how many hundreds of innocent people died
as a result of our actions.
—Allowing Israel to flaunt UN resolutions demanding an end to the
occupation of Palestinian lands; supplying that country with fighter planes
and attack helicopters, among other advanced weaponry used during the
current uprising or Intifadah; failing to offer more than token support
for the Palestinians’ call for freedom and justice while shielding
Israel from international censure for its policies and actions.
Given such a record, it is not too difficult to understand why we have
become the target of terrorist networks. What is truly remarkable is the
way our own media establishment has kept us woefully ignorant of the harm
we have done in the name of "national interest."
When those hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center, they struck a blow not only against we Americans but, I believe,
against all of humanity. The terrorists on board those planes and the
clandestine network that put them there represent a profound failure—a
failure of international institutions like the United Nations to deal
effectively with the causes of terrorism; a failure of dispossessed, disenfranchised,
marginalized people to have their grievances heard and addressed; a failure
of policies, creeds, and ideologies that sanction violence and vengeance
as the ultimate instruments of social change.
Our government is preparing for war. It is not too late, friends, to make
our voices heard and do all that is within our power to prevent what is
sure to be an even greater catastrophe for the peoples of this world.
What we should do
Instead of launching a full-scale attack against Afghanistan or other
states that may harbor terrorists, the United States government should
pursue a fundamentally different direction that could begin with at least
some of the following initiatives and actions:
—Declare a period of national mourning for the victims of last Tuesday’s
terrorist attack.
—Pour whatever resources it takes to help survivors cope with their
loss and rebuild their own shattered lives.
—Outreach to schools throughout the country to help children and
young people deal with these tragic events.
—Consider erecting a memorial and/or peace park on the site of the
former World Trade Center in honor of those who died and in recognition
of our common humanity.
—Bailout the airline industry.
—Convene an international conference under the auspices of the United
Nations to examine terrorism in all its expressions and ramifications.
—Stop arming Israel. Compel that country to follow the international
consensus (on the Arab-Israeli conflict) by ending the occupation and
stopping all
settlement on Palestinian land.
—End the economic embargo on Iraq. Allow that country to fully rebuild
its economy without US or UK interference. Insist on Iraq’s disarmament
within a regional context (i.e., if Iraq is to disarm, so too must Israel,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc.).
—Hold Turkey accountable for the repression of its own Kurdish people
and for its frequent invasions of Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish resistance
fighters.
This is by no means a complete list. But it is a beginning. I invite you
to add your own ideas as you think about what I have written and perhaps
share this letter with people within your own community.
Sincerely, George Capaccio
The University of Arkansas has notified George Capaccio
that his "While The Light Still Trembles - Poems and Stories"
has won the 1999 PeaceWriting Award "for a book of poetry that significantly
contributes to peacemaking."
George writes that:
"The
book consists mainly of poems inspired by my work in Iraq as an
anti-sanctions
activist. Aside from the personal satisfaction that comes from
winning an
award of this caliber, I feel this sort of recognition might, in
some small
way, contribute to our work to getting the sanctions lifted....
The more
I think about the book, the more I realize it is not simply
my product.
It owes so much to the many people who have supported my
witnessing
and activism. At the same time, the book belongs to the people of
Iraq. It
really comes from them. It is their pain, suffering and beauty I
have tried
to reflect in my writing."
To order copies of this award-winning book,
contact: Salaamg@aol.com
Return to
Links helping people understand the crisis exacerbated by the attacks of September 11, 2001
Assembled by Skip Schiel