911 families say lashing out is not the answer ( Al Jazerra exclusive)

Al Jazerra ^ | 04/03/03 | Habib Battah and Adam Porter

[alisasny]

Thursday 03, April, 2003 / Last Updated: 9:38PM Doha time, 2:38AM GMT

When her 37-year-old nephew was killed during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, Valerie Lucznikowska was broken with despair. When President George W. Bush began to speak about America’s response, her trauma was amplified.

Lucznikowska is now on tour speaking out against the bombing of Iraq, with the often-overlooked group, `September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow.’

“I just can’t understand the motivation of President Bush,” she said. Born and raised in New York, Lucznikowska never felt the desire to avenge her nephew’s death.

“What would it be for. Why would I want the anguish visited on other people? What for? I know how it felt, I know what the anguish feels like, I searched for my nephew when the World Trade went down.”

She was particularly disturbed by a speech given by her president days after the attacks. It invoked the name of Abe Zelmanowitz, a man who was killed because he refused to leave the side of his quadriplegic colleague.

According to the Bush speech, such “eloquent acts of sacrifice” showed “an abiding love for our country.”

“I realised that my country was going to use my brother’s act as justification for going to war in Afghanistan. I absolutely disagreed with it,” wrote Rita Lasar--the man’s sister--in an article that appeared in the Jewish Week last year.

Lasar later travelled to Afghanistan with a group of people who lost relatives on September 11. When she returned she founded September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow.

911 has been exploited

Lucznikowska fully agreed with her sentiments, claiming her brother’s tragedy was manipulated to bolster the cause of violence.

“President Bush used that case of humanity to make a case for revenge.”

“That person,” she explained, “the man who stayed behind to look after his colleague, he was an orthodox Jewish man, and a man of peace.”

“What President Bush did not know, and what gave us the energy to start the group, was that that man would have hated to see a response like that of the administration.”

“I know because his sister Rita Lazar was the founder of our group. Another of our founders was Kelly Campbell who lost a brother in the Pentagon, yet so often the attack on the Pentagon was used to make a case for more wars. It is the wrong response.”

“Now I speak all over the world, telling people about our group, telling people about the need for international law and respect for life. We have to break the cycle of violence.”

She says she’s received many warm welcomes throughout her travels, and claims that in Italy alone, 400 municipalities have signed a motion against the war.

Lucznikowska and September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow are making the case for the rule of international law.

Civil society, she said, is founded on laws that apply to everyone equally. Such a system has been created for the sake of the young, “to show them the value of reasoned debate and laws,” she added.

“Lashing out will not help anyone.”

She says her group does not receive much attention from US media. But When she does get a chance to provide a sound bite, she usually quotes Martin Luther King Jr.:

“ ‘Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows ‘.”

“When I tell them that they usually understand.”

[goldstategop]

We don't want to inflict pain on any one else, right? That's the attitude that brought us 9-11 in the first place. By not answering the bad guys when we could have cause we were all sooo touchy feely. And wound up having 3,000 dead on our hands. I quite frankly don't give a damn if they like or don't like a connection between 9-11 and the war on Iraq or not. What I do care is that we don't have another day like 9-11 ever again in this country and if that means riding roughshod over some survivors' politically correct sensibilities so be it. We're paying tribute to those who died in on that day by making this a safer world for the American people AND the rest of the planet.

[halfdome]

Many people feel that the proper response to terrorist acts is to go after the terrorists themselves, not declare war on a country and subject that country's citizens to the same horrific violence that we underwent. Our government says we should be prepared for more terrorist acts against us as a result of the war in Iraq. It will be interesting to see if the world's reaction to next act of terrorism against us is different than it was the last time.

[ricpic]

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that that Mister Bush person is not a nice man. When someone hits him.....he hits back! That's not nice.

[NCLaw441]

Do these lefties believe that what was occurring in Iraq prior to the arrival of coalition forces was PEACE? What is being brought to Iraq NOW is peace. Perhaps these "peace advocates" prefer the use of human shredders, meathooks, electric shock, rape, crucifixtion and murder to liberation from same..... to each his/her own, I guess, but WE ARE RIGHT, and we are showing the world that we are right.

[Bubba_Leroy]

The 9-11 victims and their families constituted a broad cross section of America. They included every imaginable group, every race, color, creed, and socio-economic class. It is inevitable that a group that large and broad would include some idiots.

[Keith]

I don't give a flying f**k what the rest of the world "thinks" next time we get hit. It's a huge mistake to expect anything rational from the world of appeasement. Since when did the opinions of the spoiled, who have been protected from evil for 50 years by American might, have any weight?

We saw who our friends were in the last several months...we know whose opinion we respect...but frankly, we don't tell them who they HAVE to listen to...they have elected leaders for that. So do we. WE can either throw them out, or re-elect them.

Dubya is constitutionally charged with PROTECTING AMERICANS from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Our troops in Iraq are doing that now...and freeing the Iraqi people at the same time. A pretty good daily double.

I have finally figured out that I shouldn't be surprised that so many Americans think we shouldn't do things that other countries oppose. In a country where kids now are expected to play baseball games where no one keeps score because "the losing team might feel bad", it's no surprise that we wouldn't go to war to protect ourselves from weapons of mass destruction because "we might hurt the Kofi Annan's feelings."

the analogy, as strange as it seems, applies.

[tessalu]

Just because one woman had a nephew killed in 9/11 does not mean that she has to have good sense.

[Verginius Rufus]

No doubt Lucznikowska would have been much happier with Al Gore's response to 9/11, if he had been President.

Would Martin Luther King, Jr., have told Abraham Lincoln "We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means" in 1863?

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Yes, I agree. I think that 9/11 was done because they thought Bush would continue the policies of appeasement and weakness of Clinton....ie, the terrorists thought they could get away with it

They have been sadly mistaken, now

[SendShaqtoIraq]

"Many people feel that the proper response to terrorist acts is to go after the terrorists themselves"

And those who harbor and support them!

"not declare war on a country and subject that country's citizens to the same horrific violence that we underwent"

Would this be the horrific violence that Saddam has imposed on Iraqi civilians for over 20 years? Gassing them, cutting out their tongues, torturing children in front of their parents?
Saddam and his regime deliberately kills more citizens EVERY DAY than we will accidentally kill in the whole war.

From under which rock did you crawl?

[OldFriend]

The attack was on the very essense of America. That individuals were killed was secondary to the murderers. They wanted to attack the WTC and the Pentagon as symbols.

Pretending that all will be well if we just be nice is not exactly rational.

Each family has the g-d given right to their own feelings and I would never deny that. However, we have a responsibility to our country to make sure that we prove to the world we will not stand by and be attacked again without a response. Eight years of that brought us to today.

[Bobby777]

Al Jazerra exclusive

when you see this statement, you know it's worthless information ... but no doubt revered by certain masses as "journalism" ...

[Campion]

Many people feel that the proper response to terrorist acts is to go after the terrorists themselves, not declare war on a country and subject that country's citizens to the same horrific violence that we underwent.

What if the chief terrorist also happens to be the head of state of a country? How do you propose to go after the head of state of another country without going to war?

Being the friend or relative of a 9/11 victim does not automatically grant anyone any particular wisdom in knowing how to respond to terrorism, by the way. And I will point out to you that we tried mild responses to terrorist acts for 8 years. It led only to bigger and bigger terrorist acts, culminating in 9/11. The appeasement of evil has never worked, and will never work.

[butter pecan fan]

What a freaking idiot. Observe the two obvious lies:

Lie: "The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are all about revenge."

Truth: The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are about eliminating the otherwise certain threat of multiple September 11ths in the future.

Lie: "They're attacking us because of a 'cycle of violence.' We did something to hurt them, so they hurt us back. If we hurt them again, that will only cause them to hurt us again."

Truth: We are facing evil people whose avowed purpose is to rape, plunder and kill us just as much as we will permit them to. Like Hitler, appeasement will only lead to further aggression against us. It is not possible to bring peace by singing Kumbayah with these people, because if we do, as soon as the song is over, they will rape, torture, murder and otherwise dominate all of the 'peace-loving' folk. And laugh all the while.

[peteram]

Re: Post #7 -

You hit the nail square on the head, sink.