Usually I do not call the White House comment line. But today after a few emails encouraging me to call the president and ask him not to escalate the war in Afghanistan, I decided to call. I called the White House comment line and after a wait was put through to a volunteer operator. I made my request to the president not to escalate the war and the operator thanked me. I asked if he did not want to know my name or where I was from. He said it was only the comment line and it did not matter who I was and the call was ended.
I thought of my observation in last night’s post that someone I know said when challenged, “I am a human being” as a statement that who he was as a being was more important than a comment he made. So I did what was suggested by the electronic voice while I was waiting to make my comment: I went to the White House contact page on the web. I wrote:
“My name is Bob Graf. I am a human being. Your comment line operator did not care who I was, not even my name. I called to plead with you not to escalate the war in Afghanistan by sending more troops. The people of Afghanistan are also human beings like me with names, families and friends. We are not killing nameless persons and the killing on both sides is not by nameless persons. In the name of humanity please stop this ‘crime of humanity’ and stop the killing. Why are we fighting a war in Afghanistan and sending persons to kill or be killed? Please honestly answer this question of why and listen to response of the people of USA and Afghanistan.”
Tonight on the news the president announced he will announce a major escalation of the war, sending a large number of American military to Afghanistan. I guess he did not consider the thousands and thousands of comments he received today or, most likely, they did not make a difference. He probably will give us a rationale for sending more troops in this eight year war and occupation of Afghanistan which, like Iraq, seems to have no end.
Sadly I am not surprised at his decision but I am surprised how persons like me still expect decisions on war and killing to be made on self-defense justification or with moral considerations. Occupying a country with force and violence does not work. Killing human beings is not the way to stop killing human beings. Of course we never say we are killing human beings but ‘communists’ in Vietnam or now ‘terrorists’ in Afghanistan.
We are all human beings, American soldiers, Afghanistan insurgents and the many innocent men, woman and children who die.
Comments
(:commentboxchrono:)