Letter: We have become silent prisoners

Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2002 | 8:54 a.m.

Like the villagers in the old TV series "The Prisoner," United States citizens have become prisoners of their country's foreign policy and are being controlled by the fear of a terrorist red alert.

The 9-11 attacks on the symbols of our military-industrial complex were a response to our occupation of the Middle East. Already the threat of war with, and the occupation of, Iraq have increased extremist political power in Pakistan, a country with nuclear weapons. Saddam is not a military threat to us. He is a troublesome obstacle between us and his oil and our policy of military domination of the Middle East.

We can expect more 9-11s after our occupation of the oil countries, as well as the erosion of our civil rights for national security reasons. In anticipation of this we have vague "yellow alerts" about "spectacular terrorist attacks," and a new agency wants "total information" on all of us.

Ironically, the fear created by these vague alerts and the Iraq war propaganda seem to be uniting Americans into a village of self-destruction. Yet, there is more opposition to a war with Iraq than appears in the president's popularity numbers.

As the only superpower in the world, the United States should pursue a policy of global cooperation for justice and peace. It will sow better seeds than military imperialism and greedy consumption. It's time we became more than numbers and spoke out for new foreign and domestic policies while we are still free to do so.

JERRY BITTS