With bin Laden death, new direction for U.S.?

The death of Osama bin Laden presents a historic opportunity for the United States. We can take advantage of the opportunity only by soberly and somberly reflecting on the path we have taken these past nine years.

That path produced more than 6,000 U.S. soldiers killed, $1.3 trillion spent, as many as 100,000 or more Iraqi and Afghan civilians killed, millions of Iraqi and Afghan refugees, 300,000 more veterans with PTSD, etc. We can choose to continue on that path by extending our deadline for leaving Iraq, by accepting our generals' judgment that we must be at war in Afghanistan indefinitely, and by finding ever more fertile grounds for the deployment of our lethal military.

Or we can mark the death of bin Laden as the end of that path and begin walking the path of peace.

In practical terms, that means beginning to bring soldiers home from Iraq now, making the promised substantial troop withdrawal from Afghanistan this summer, controlling our generals, reining in Pentagon spending, and putting our shoulders to the monumental job of waging peace. This path is not only more in keeping with what is best in American ideals, but will keep us safer from dangers, external and internal.

Ed Flaherty

President, Veterans for Peace Iowa, Chapter 161

Iowa City