The politicization of tragedy

In his address to the nation on Monday, President Bush expressed concern for the victims and survivors of the 9/11 attacks while using their suffering to promote his unpopular political agenda. Despite his insistence that "staying the course" is the only option for success in Iraq, reports from US military commanders suggest that strategy has failed. Stubbornly refusing to acknowledge that failure, and using the tragedy of 9/11 as a platform for garnering support for his policies, is simply wrong.

There is a better way. As Joe Volk, FCNL Executive Secretary writes:

President Bush, war is not the answer to the problem of terror. Terror is not a person, not a place, and not a thing. It is a tactic. You cannot defeat tactics with weapons and armor. Terror can be deterred and stopped through active diplomacy, through multilateral cooperation, and through the rule of law....Civilization is protected by and built on law, not on war. Peace is possible, if you choose peaceful means to achieve it.

Five years ago, we allowed our country to be led into war against Afghanistan and later in Iraq, based on the false choice "between good and evil" offered by President Bush. If we've learned nothing else since then, we've learned that war is not the answer.