Extreme opinions feed anger, fear

People expressing extreme opinions often do so with a combination of twisted truth and a sense of despair that serves only to feed anger and fear. \nDuncan Teater's editorial "War is not the only option" is an excellent example of this. He opens the editorial with the assertion that our nation is unable to respond to the Sept. 11 attacks with anything but annihilation. What the United States is doing in Afghanistan is considerably less than annihilation. It is a very specific attack on a very specific subgroup of those who live there. \nThe United States has the means of annihilation, and if that were the response we chose, we could have done that quickly. Instead, we are spending much time and money, and risking people's lives, because we refuse to response with annihilation. \nTeater spends most of the rest of the article trying to preach a sense of despair, that Americans are helpless and voiceless. I think its ironic that someone would use this paper, a forum of free speech read by thousands of people to tell us that individuals don't have a voice. And although Bush has enjoyed a reasonable amount of unanimity among members of congress and most Americans, so did his father during the Gulf War. It was a popularity that quickly faded. Bush is no doubt fully aware that he is finally answerable to the American people, and he is. \nHe is also answerable to congress, despite Teater's claims. Already in this conflict, Congress has exercised the system of checks and balances against the president in dealing with issues such as who is allowed access to classified information. Just because he is popular right now, it doesn't mean that he doesn't operate within the limits that presidents have always had.\nThe fact that Teater could publish an editorial in which he preaches such despair and twisted truth, and that this article could be read freely by so many people, is a testimony to the groundlessness of his claim.