I write this even though the ardent counter-Americans (American "citizens" who don't support defending America) on this campus will never admit that their position is flawed intellectually and incorrect pragmatically. I write this even though the counter- American students and faculty have demonstrated that they could not care less for the safety and security of America. This letter is for the rest of the student body, those who care about America's well- being.

They say that actions are louder than words and as of yet the actions between the Taliban, Afghanistan, al Qaeda and the United States all show that the United States is not simply rushing into hasty action. In the month of September the only actions taken by the U.S. have been humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan. Then there was the attack on the United States in the midst of a war declared by the al Qaeda group. We have moved ships closer and frozen assets inside the United States. The Taliban have taken over its offices in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and are preventing staff from using communication facilities in other parts of the country.

The "leadership" in the Taliban are showing how insincere they are in their condemnation and how they don't care who they strike out against as long as they strike out against non-Islamic fundamentalists. The poverty and horrid conditions within Afghanistan over the past few years were exacerbated by the Taliban forbidding women to work outside of the house. That eliminated a large part of their workforce and deemed many families headed by widows unable to provide for themselves. Yet the counter-Americans on campus will say that it is the fault of the U.S. and America deserved what they got.

Don't let the counter-Americans on campus and within the Daily editorial boards fool you with their lies, mistruths and half- truths. Inaccuracies such as the Taliban "which controls so little of Afghanistan that only four nations recognize it as the ruling sect." The truth is that there are 3 nations that recognize the Taliban and it is because of the method they used to come to power. The truth is that the estimates are that the Taliban control about 90% of the country and have support from over 75% of the population.

Among the leading plea from the counter-Americans and their co- conspirators in the Daily editorial board is that armed attacks and ground troops would be contrary to "international law". International law allows for the self-defense by America and the majority of the developed nations have acknowledged that armed attacks in this case are warranted. The allowance calls for the members of NATO to similarly join the attack.

The member nations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have acknowledged that the attack on the United States was grounds for the U.S. to retaliate. Furthermore the NATO nations voted unanimously to invoke Article 5 which says that "that an armed attack against one shall be considered an attack against them all" if the attacks are in accordance with United Nations Article 51. It also acknowledges the degree of retaliation by "including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area".

Admittedly NATO is not international law, but it defers to international law's definitions and requirements. So does international law forbid America from defending herself as the counter-Americans would have you believe? Does international law forbid attacking in defense as the counter-Americans imply? No. In fact international law allows for "self-defence [sic] if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations".

Again these are intentional mistruths on behalf of the counter- Americans. The international law would be the United Nations charter (unless the counter-Americans are referring to some other secret or unwritten law). Any fair and objective reporting would

Americans support armed retaliation, and the counter-Americans continue to offer platitudes why America should remain defenseless. They will paint the picture that the hi-jackers were misguided-and in a few years they will describe the hi-jackers and the Taliban as misunderstood. I guarantee that the counter-Americans will continue their lies, shield the truth and continue their assault on the American way of life.

The counter-Americans will continue to justify why the attacks on America were deserved. "America is far from innocent." I can not believe that anyone in their right mind would allow such a mentality as this: the victim of an attack brought it on themselves through unrelated reasons. What the people who are saying "America is far from innocent" are truly saying is that `America is close to guilty'. In other words these people are saying that America is to blame for the attacks on September 11, 2001. That is as asinine and ignorant as someone saying that any other victim is to blame for their own unrelated actions. We don't allow a person to say that someone who was murdered deserved it because they were selling drugs, which is blaming a victim for unrelated reasons. We don't accept someone saying that a rape victim was asking for it because of how they were dressed, which is blaming a victim for unrelated reasons. We should not allow people to say that America was to blame for the brutal and demonic attacks because of its policies, which is blaming the victim for unrelated reasons.

Similarly such line of thinking that the counter-Americans take that allows them to blame the U.S. is nothing more than terrorist sympathizing. They are justifying the hellish actions that took place and thus giving rhetorical shelter to the terrorists. They are accepting the brutality on their own countrymen while giving justifications for the brutality. They are trying to undermine the effort to protect other American citizens within American borders. They are trying to undermine the defense of America, its people and its freedom. They would like us to respond only to the actual actors, a course of action that has gotten not prevented future attacks. (Refer to the first attack on the World Trade Center.) They would like only token attacks at the most like after the U.S.S. Cole attack or like after the embassy attacks. We all see how effective the slap on the wrist was. We can see how effective trying to minimize any casualties has been.

What counter-Americans do not want the public to understand is that the only thing that the Taliban, terrorists and their supporters know is bloodshed. That is the only language they speak. We have tried everything else already and each of those have failed. The counter- Americans would rather us continue to be pacifist, a policy which has already shown that the only blood that will fall will be that of Americans. The counter-Americans tacitly support those who attack the United States, they directly oppose intervention at all costs and the world that they would have created is scary. They and their kind would have opposed retaliation to Pearl Harbor and would have undermined the world cause. If the counter-American's absolute resistance to defend America were alive in the 1940's then we would all be screaming "Heil" to Hitler. Their continued resistance to the defense of America now will lead us to a world where women must cover themselves entirely in public and owning a television is an offense punishable by imprisonment.

So the bottom line is to seek out these counter-Americans and shun them. Ignore what they have to say. They have a right to say in this, the greatest country on the planet. They don't have a right to be heard, so we just seek them out and actively ignore their ignorance. The counter-Americans and their message are a detriment to the country. And who are they again? They are the American "citizens" and residents who are trying to undermine the United States defense of itself. They are the American "citizens" and residents who say that "America is far from innocent" and that America had it coming. They are the American "citizens" and residents who refuse to accept that there are times for armed conflict and there are times for armed defense, and that this is one of those times. They are, to be perfectly honest, terrorist sympathizers. They are counter-Americans.