Open Letter to the President of the United States

By Michio Kushi

OPEN LETTER

September 25 , 2001

Mr. George W. Bush
Honorable President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500

RE: POLICY ON TERRORISM

Dear Mr. President,

We, citizens and residents of the United States, are all sharing your tears and sorrow for the deaths of thousands sacrificed by the terrorist attacks on the morning of September 11th, with the destruction of the New York World Trade Center and Pentagon.

We appreciate the swift action taken by the government and Congress against terrorists. We also deeply appreciate the allied Western countries for their immediate agreement and offer of cooperation with the United States.

We also support the mobilization of U.S. military forces strategically surrounding Afghanistan, where the source of terrorism is surely assumed to be. We shall never regret the hardship of our living conditions we may face as a result.

At the same time, we consider that, if the American Army uses ground troop penetration into Afghanistan and nearby regions, many Islamic people would consider that America is invading to attack Islamic people. Anti-America has been a long emotional tradition in the Islamic world in general. Their emotions may have not been clearly expressed by their governments in their international diplomacy, yet many Americans have learned of this dissension while travelling in these regions. This anti-Americanism has been rooted in centuries of Western political and economic domination over these regions. They consider at the present that America is a symbol of Western powers. This mood has been further stimulated by the imbalance of American assistance to the State of Israel in comparison with other Middle Eastern countries, as well as the more recent incidents of the Gulf War.

Therefore, in the event of military action of ground troops, together with airborne bombing of their people, the emotion of anti-America would rapidly escalate and prevail among most of the Islamic world.

If this anti-America emotion intensifies, which would easily be instigated by a handful of agitators, new acts of terrorism would be launched in America and Western countries, even after the source of the current terrorism is deactivated. Terrorism may include poisoning of water reservoirs, explosions in power plants, assassinations of leaders, as well as attacks of arson on citizens' homes.

It is almost impossible for the current national security system to deal with these incalculable acts of terrorism. Together with these occurrences, some citizens of America and Western countries would seek revenge indiscriminately on innocent Islamic people, and people who look similar to them. Under such circumstances, current Western-allied countries would start to doubt and hesitate in their collaboration with American policy, because many innocent Islamic people are residing in their countries. International and domestic disorder would prevail.

At the same time, in the Islamic regions, agitated people would certainly overthrow the monarchies and governments that have been diplomatically and economically aligned with America and Western countries. New partisan governments would begin to dominate.

American troops that have stations in these regions would receive guerilla attacks, which may result in the sacrifice of thousands of American lives. Some guerilla campaigns would be focussed on attack of petroleum production. Needless to say, the result will be grave confusion in the civilized societies of the world.

With these happenings, some Israeli factions may move to invade nearby Islamic areas, in spite of the hesitation of its government. The result would be escalation towards international war, which would possibly include nuclear explosions and chemical warfare. Millions of lives may be sacrificed.

Modern civilization, with its political, economic, and social systems, would begin to fall rapidly. At worst, modern civilized systems that have been developed since the 18th Century would collapse.

We respect any Presidential and Congressional decisions. At the same time, in view of the above scenario, we hope the most care is exercised to solve the current situation. The following measures are recommended for your consideration:

We wish to repeat that we wholeheartedly support any Presidential and Congressional decision. At the same time, we sincerely hope America's spirit for freedom, justice, and brotherhood is well demonstrated towards the establishment of trust of the American spirit among all mankind. We should turn this unfortunate incident of terrorism towards the opening of the door for the Era of Humanity, which shall evolve into World Federation in the near future. America is a multi-racial, multi-cultural society. We sincerely hope that America will demonstrate to the entire world its high spirit of Love for all mankind. This will make America a leading light to open the new world of global community. American spirit should be a foundation for one healthy, peaceful world, which shall ever last on this planet.

Respectfully yours,

Michio Kushi

MK:cra

POLICY ON TERRORISM

 

CC:

The Honorable Richard Cheney, Vice President of the United States The Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee, U.S. Senate The Honorable Dan Burton, Chairman, Committee on Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Edward M. Kennedy, U.S. Senate, Massachusetts The Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Senate, New York The Honorable Dennis J. Kucinich, U.S. House of Representative, Ohio The Honorable Abdul Sattar, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan