Ross Nelson: The Gadfly Is Glib

To the Editor:

I’m not sure, but I think Ed Raymond just defended killing as many Afghanistan civilians as needed to win that war. That we shouldn’t be there at all fighting the Taliban seems not an option to him; or perhaps he’s just saying that as long as we’re there fighting, right or wrong, we might as well break as many civilian eggs as it takes. After all, this has been the American way for better than a century.
As shocking as this may be to Americans, the Taliban wasn’t behind 9/11. Not only is al-Qaida nearly extinct in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, but it turns out that it was heavily monitored by the Taliban after 1997 and that the Taliban was going to exile bin Laden to the Saudis upon getting decent evidence from the U.S. on the embassy bombings in Africa. The Afghan Supreme Court ruled the evidence inadequate to convict bin Laden, probably because we didn’t think it necessary to take the Afghans seriously and give them real proof, or perhaps because President Clinton was ginning up yet another gratuitous war, this time with Serbia.
Chesty Puller might be the Gadfly’s hero and a great warrior, but he was also a shock trooper for several blatantly imperialistic American wars and interventions. No doubt he would have pleased the Gadfly by remorselessly using every weapon at his disposal to lay waste to everyone and everything in his path. How odd that I find myself, a thorough-going conservative, on Raymond’s left when it comes to war and empire.

Ross Nelson
Casselton, ND