Text of letter to editor of Dawn Newspaper in Pakistan

Hello all from New York City.  I have enjoyed reading Dawn Newspaper most
everyday now for over a month.  It has truly helped me gain more perspective.
 Still, things really are believed differently in different places. Clearly,
it doesn't matter if it is cross-country, or inter-country. People feel
differently about this situation.

As a New Yorker, I have grieved. It doesn't matter to me that the U.S. is
held to blame for giving arms to particular countries or people.  I saw
something terrible in humanity that I had never before witnessed.  It is
difficult for me to understand why any sentient being would destroy the
beauty that is a human being in so many large numbers.  Gratefully, I didn't
know anyone personally, though this massacre touched everyone in the City.  

Now, I can understand why someone in a less affluent country would say,
"Good!," that the U.S. was too arrogant with those 2 big buildings pointing
into outer space, practically defining the New York landscape, and the
American business center.  But I also understand that this is really
unfortunate, for all of us that share the world.

We cannot judge other cultures so easily when our only reference is our own
culture. For example, I am a musician.  Does this mean that I think
Afghanistan should be invaded because the Taliban do not allow music to be
heard?  Hunger deserves intervention...why not the protection of
international murderers?

I think all people have the right to defend themselves.  I think we have to
meet an act of war, and more than a decade of serious threat, with deadly
force.  And I think, surprisingly to many, that Afghanistan will be a better
place for it.  Remember, Germany and Japan and Italy were enemies of the U.S.
less than 60 years ago, and now they are wonderful countries, and friends. I
have been to all three of them as a performing musician and it is good to see
how they are in now in coalition together.  Every country needs to support
this endeavor.  Individuals that do not want countries to rule over religion
are making a line in the sand.

Now I realize that my view is not widely shared by many of the readers of
this paper. I truly wish the bombing will end soon and that not another
innocent has their blood shed.  But those of us that live in a country that
fought for its independence, know that there are some ways of living that are
just not worth living.  If the women of Afghanistan cannot use their minds,
and must bury their bodies in a burqa, do many readers think this is a way of
living?  If there was more to aspire to in this life, would a suicide bomber
rush so to death?

The U.S. should never have walked away from Afghanistan after the Afghan
victory over the Soviets.  There are other nevers I can think of, but never
defend oneself?  Never.  U.S. government actions are no excuse for wanton
mass murder, or for the protection of unrepentant killers.

Johnny Reinhard
318 East 70th Street
New York, NY  10021
212-517-3550

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]