By Joseph Picard: Subscribe to Joseph's RSS feed
July 29, 2010 6:36 PM EDT
I'm biased on this issue.
Just outside my lower Manhattan office window is the remarkable beehive of activity known to everyone as Ground Zero.
Truly, it is sacred ground.
And not only because of all the people who died there, and were heroic there, and became sick there because they came to help. It is also sacred ground because, every day and almost every hour of the day, they are rebuilding.
We are rebuilding.
It is what the higher qualities of humankind - what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" - do. When we get knocked down, we get up. When some hate-filled so-and-sos destroy our buildings, we rebuild.
Frankly, I was for reconstructing the twin towers to precisely as they were on 9/10, with the exception of anti-aircraft guns on the roofs and a big banner of Mickey Mouse saying "Hey, bin Laden!" while prominently displaying a certain single-digit salute.
But I will be satisfied with the Memorial and the adjacent structures.
As said, I am biased on this issue.
No, no. I don't mean the issue of the Islamic center proposed for a few blocks away. I have no problem with that at all. I can tell the difference between the peaceful practice of a civilized religion and an extremist offshoot of hate-filled so-and-sos.
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People protesting the Islamic center may as well go uptown and demonstrate for the closing of St. Patrick's because some priest-abused individuals live in the vicinity.
No. My bias involves a much more significant issue. The Afghan War.
Like every sane individual, I detest war. Also, as my friends and some acquaintances know, I do not shy away from saying which of America's wars were unjust, stupid and horrible wastes of blood and treasure.
But the Afghan War is just, and necessary. And it does not have to be stupid.
The only comparable event in U.S. history to 9/11 is Pearl Harbor. We were attacked. We were murdered. We, therefore, went to war. And if we do not take the fight to the enemy and defeat them, we will be attacked again. And again.
The conduct of the war has often left much to be desired. Almost from the beginning, our Afghan effort was sidetracked, to spend blood and treasure and time on a much less justifiable endeavor.
But those who say we should pull out of Afghanistan because the war is unwinnable, or the Karzai government is corrupt, or we should just stay out of other nations' affairs, are, at the very least, naïve.
If we leave before the job is done, the Taliban will return to power, al Qaeda will emerge from hiding, and the whole evil exercise of a rogue government giving hate-filled so-and-sos the support they need to plan attacks aimed at our destruction will begin again in earnest.
One thing worse than a suicide bomber is a suicidal policy. Stay the course.
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