Green Party USA Condemns the Bombing of Afghanistan.

• Position: War for Oil - War on Terrorism, 2001- - Brief Article

The Green Party USA condemns the US and British bombing of Afghanistan as inhumane and an act of "state terrorism" against a starving and impoverished nation. The killing of innocent civilians, whether intended or not, is a violation of international law. The US bombing of Afghanistan must cease immediately.

Greens believe that all human life is equally valuable, whether a person works in lower Manhattan or lives in the desert outside Kabul. We mourn the lives of those hundreds of innocent civilians murdered by U.S. bombs in Afghanistan, just as we continue to mourn the thousands killed in the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. These were criminal acts, as are all acts of terror against innocent civilians, whether committed by individuals or by governments (including the United States). Those responsible for acts of terror--including "state terror"--should be brought to justice under international law.

Our call for justice, however, must not be confused with calls for "revenge," which will only lead to the deaths of more innocent civilians. "Justice should be the result of a fair, impartial and transparent trial conducted under international law at which credible evidence is produced," Brooklyn Green Pete Dolack. Thus far, that evidence against any specific individual, including Osama bin Laden, has been questionable. For a nation to embark upon bombing another country--in the case of Afghanistan, one that had been armed and financed by the US government--for any reason, but especially without producing clear evidence while killing innocent civilians in the process, is an arrogant and inhumane act.

Furthermore, pounding Afghanistan's population will only generate new waves of retaliatory attacks. As columnists Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman have noted, the bombardment of Afghanistan "is a policy that will diminish U.S. security, ignores overriding humanitarian concerns, and precludes more sensible approaches to achieving justice and promoting security in the United States and around the world."

"The devastation to the environment and civilian population caused by cluster bombs and by the use of Depleted Uranium artillery (contained in Tomahawk missiles) will be a lingering and insidious nightmare against the environment and Afghanistan's people," said Barb Sweeney of New Mexico, a member of the Green Party USA's International Relations committee.

And, added Mitchel Cohen, "It's painfully ironic that among the...