by Marty Jezer

The bombing of Afghanistan is entering its fourth week. What began as an attempt to destroy the country’s air defense and military infrastructure in anticipation of direct attacks on bin Laden’s mountain lair has turned into an attempt to destroy the Taliban regime. What was supposed to be a new kind of war, to attack and destroy a terrorist network that knows no national bounds, has turned into the same old strategic bombing we know from previous wars. Carpet bombing, cluster bombs, one-thousand pound bombs that hit houses, health clinics, food warehouses and other civilian targets. The Afghan people, who have not been implicated in any terrorist crime, are the ones who are hurting.

Even before the September 11 attack, over five million people were on the edge of starvation in Afghanistan, surviving only because of international aid. The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and other international humanitarian organizations were in Afghanistan working desperately to truck in food before winter closed the roads.

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by Dalton Camp

According to usually reliable sources, the war has moved from Phase One to Phase Two.

Those rooting for the good guys must hope Phase Two will be more successful. I think there is evidence the war is losing the momentum of patriotic fervor and, as well, is beginning to be questioned by thoughtful people both in the United States and abroad.

In an attempt to bolster morale and stop the bleeding of faint hearts, the military has stepped up the bombing, continued its promise of a long war and renewed its commitment to make more war on more nations suspected of harboring, sponsoring or training terrorists.

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by Brian Halweil

When the foot-and-mouth virus spread through the British countrysidethis past spring-costing the nation an estimated $6 billion-conspiracytheorists speculated that the introduction was an intentional act ofbiowarfare. While this particular disease doesn't harm humans, it canweaken livestock herds, decimate farm incomes, devastate consumerconfidence in the food supply, and bring rural economies to a standstillwith quarantines and other restrictions.

Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman recently cited her department'ssuccess at containing food-and-mouth as proof that the U.S. governmentis prepared to respond to any terrorist attacks on the food we eat. Butlike so many official statements during the current round of anthraxattacks, her optimism may be sadly misplaced

Consider one particularly vulnerable link in our food chain: the modernmeat processing plant. Operating around the country, the typical plantcan process millions of pounds of ground beef or hotdogs or coldcuts injust a few days.

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by William Pfaff

PARIS -- What set out to be an American war on terrorism has become a war against Afghanistan. The substitution of Afghanistan for terrorism, or the identification of the one with the other, is not only unjust but diverts U.S. policy from where it was intended to go, to where it is the most simple to go.

Afghanistan has been substituted for terrorism because Afghanistan is accessible to military power, and terrorism is not. The employment of high-tech munitions against irrelevant targets is a distraction from measures that actually deal with the threat.

"War" is feasible against Qaida, the clandestine association of like-minded Muslim fundamentalists led by Osama bin Laden, because it is a matter of police and intelligence work. Remarkable progress has been made during the last four weeks, thanks to unprecedented international cooperation.

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by Arnold Toynbee

You may throw out nature with a pitchfork, but she keeps on coming back." This is the verdict of a Latin poet, who had been born into the last generation of the hundred-year-long Roman revolution. Horace was speaking from first-hand experience, and his words are terribly relevant to our own experience.

There is a persistent vein of violence and cruelty in human nature. Man has often striven to rid himself of what he recognizes as being a hideous moral blemish, unworthy of human nature's better side. Sometimes man has fancied that he has succeed in civilizing himself.

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by Terry Laggner

I believe we CAN win against terrorism. We may not be able to eradicateevery incidence from the face of the earth forever, but we can embrace a newgeopolitical balance and Weltanschauung that underpins health, dignity,opportunity, and respect for human life. We can create a soil so rich innutrients no poison will be able to take root. Will it take money? Yes.Will it take political will? Yes. Is it doable? Absolutely.

This essay is intended to contribute to the thinking that will stimulatesuch change.

It suggests three essential ingredients:
I A global Marshall Plan
II Combining internationalism and justice for Afghanistan’s women
III Move from reliance on oil to renewable resources

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by Matthew Parris

This is the season of conkers. Behind the war over Afghanistan a pettier conflict can be discerned: a word battle amongst the commentariat, conducted on laptops and from the back benches of the House of Commons. Petty by comparison, our hostilities may matter little to you readers. But to us on the ground, fighting hand-to-hand in the opinion columns, the conflict matters terribly, professionally and from a personal point of view.

It is the battle to be right, and proved right, about that bigger war conducted by the leaders of the free world. Regrettably, I mean “right” in two senses.

Nobody should be ashamed of aiming for fairness and justice, but we want to be right in a more snotty-nosed way too. In the press no less than in the school playground, the yah-boo-sucks and chants of ha-na-na are seldom far beneath the surface.

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by Harris Sussman

There's been no peace in my lifetime as an American.

I was born on the island of Manhattan. Signs and portents. I was bornbetween Auchswitz and Hiroshima.

World War Two segued into the Cold War. I don't know if fear of nuclear war had any effect on the Soviet Union but it sure affected me. The background radiation of the Manhattan Project has followed me everywhere I've gone.

Was I born with post-traumatic stress disorder? No, my mother said Iwas a happy baby. She must have done a good job distracting me. At least I didn't notice the Korean War.

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by Murray Campbell

Both sides agree that the Afghan village of Chowkar-Karez was bombed. But that's where the agreement ends.

A Taliban official stands on debris in Chowkar-Karez village, 80 km north of Kandahar, November 1, 2001. Afghan's ruling Taliban took foreign journalists to witness damage, in which residents said around 100 people were killed when U.S. planes hit the village ten days ago. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed

The Taliban says between 90 and 100 civilians, almost the entire population of the village, were killed in an attack by U.S. warplanes on Oct. 22. The Pentagon says the community was supporting terrorists from the al-Qaeda network and deserved its fate.

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