by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

In a recent interview with the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Osama bin Ladenjustified the killing of innocent Americans this way :

"If an enemy occupies a Muslim territory and uses common people as humanshield, then it is permitted to attack that enemy. For instance, ifbandits barge into a home and hold a child hostage, then the child'sfather can attack the bandits and in that attack even the child may gethurt. America and its allies are massacring us in Palestine, Chechnya,Kashmir and Iraq. The Muslims have the right to attack America inreprisal."

That's the traditional justification for killing, isn't it?

They kill us, we kill them, they kill us, we kill them.

What ever happened to "thou shalt not kill"?

Equally unimpressive is President Bush's justification for killing: weare in a war with terror.

Okay, then what about terror committed by us?

We kill innocents, they kill innocents. It's all terror.

Last week, Bush said we don't target innocent civilians.

Oh yeah? What about the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or thefire bombing of Dresden? What about U.S. support in the 1980s for thecontra war in Nicaragua, and the CIA mining of Nicaraguan ports --actions which killed thousands and led to a judgment against the UnitedStates at the World Court?

Civilian targeting, and terror, pure and simple.

Most despicable are those in our media, who sit comfortably in theirmodern offices, staring at their computers, and hit the keys advocatingmore killing of innocents thousands of miles away.

Here's our short ten worst list, in order of repulsiveness:

Michael Kelly (Washington Post): "American pacifists … are on the sideof future mass murders of Americans," they are "objectivelypro-terrorist," "evil" and "liars."

Jonathan Alter (Newsweek): Wondered whether torture would "jump-startthe stalled investigation into the greatest crime in American history."Urges pacifists to shut up because "it's kill or be killed."

Bill O'Reilly (Fox TV): "The US should bomb the Afghan infrastructure torubble -- the airport, the power plants, their water facilities, theroads. … The Afghans are responsible for the Taliban. We should nottarget civilians, but if they don't rise up against this criminalgovernment, they starve, period."

A.M. Rosenthal (Washington Times): In addition to Afghanistan, wants tobomb Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Iran, and Syria.

Ann Coulter (ex-National Review): Her response to terrorism is to"invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them toChristianity."

Steve Dunleavy (New York Post) " "The response to this unimaginable21st-century Pearl Harbor should be as simple as it is swift -- kill thebastards. … A gunshot between the eyes, blow them to smithereens,poison them if you have … As for cities or countries that host theseworms, bomb them into basketball courts."

Rich Lowry (National Review): "If we flatten part of Damascus or Tehranor whatever it takes, that is part of the solution."

Charles Krauthammer (Washington Post): "We are fighting because thebastards killed 5,000 of our people, and if we do not kill them, theyare going to kill us again."

Thomas Friedman (New York Times): "We have to fight the terrorists as ifthere were no rules." And the perverted "give war a chance."

George Will (Washington Post): "The Bush administration is telling thecountry that there is some dying to be done. ... The goal is not to'bring terrorists to justice,' which suggests bringing them into sedatejudicial settings -- lawyers, courtrooms, due process, all preceded bypunctilious readings of Miranda rights. Rather, the goal is destructionof enemies."

Of course, the peace voices have been shunned by the big mediacorporations.

After September 11, Clear Channel, the nation's largest owner of radiostations, sent out an internal memorandum with a list of songs thestations were not to play, including John Lennon's "Imagine."

In response, Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, took out a full page ad in theNew York Times with eight words from the song: "Imagine all the peopleliving life in peace."

Then she took out a billboard on Time Square that said: "Give Peace aChance."

"What John wrote is a very strong and beautiful message," Ono said. "Ithink they (Clear Channel) wanted everyone to be in a kind of attackmode."

John Lennon: "Give Peace a Chance."

Thomas Friedman: "Give War a Chance."

You decide.

Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate CrimeReporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-basedMultinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: TheHunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: CommonCourage Press, 1999).

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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