It was very sad to hear some of our senators defending the latest killing of innocents in Pakistan, among them women and children, in the name of the "war on terror" and killing members of al-Qaida:

"We apologize, but I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again," said John McCain.

"It's a regrettable situation, but what are we supposed to do?" said Evan Bayh of Indiana.

"Clearly justified by the intelligence," said Trent Lott, which is the same thing the Bush administration said about the invasion of Iraq, another war now in the process of killing innocent people.

Such comments by such distinguished men gives one pause: Apparently the "right to life" and human rights in general should only be granted to American infants. If we kill other people and children, as all wars do, it is merely regrettable. We uphold the right to kill anyone we please in the name of peace, and if we accidentally also kill the wrong people, well, at least our intentions were good.

Even a child can see through such a pathetic grasping at moral straws.

I am writing on the day set aside to honor the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., a man who fiercely believed in the efficacy of nonviolence in both domestic and foreign affairs. He no doubt would have, as a good Christian in things political (his extramarital affairs were somewhat less upright), denounced both invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, just as he denounced our debacle in Vietnam.

King understood the blatant hypocrisy and hopelessness of trying to instill peace and democracy through violent means, that the use of violence always includes an element of fascism, even when the ends are noble.

The deaths of innocents, the torture of prisoners, the loss of civil liberties are all part of the means of war. Choosing war, we cannot then apologize for its effects, as if such pronouncements of regret absolve us of responsibility. They do not, senators, absolve us.

After 9/11 this nation had a choice take stock of American/Arab history and respond with the democratic restraint and Christian good will we have long touted but too little lived by or do what we did: Unleash the arrogant and vengeful dogs of war that even in a clear-cut victory call forth other dogs and other wars.

The "war on terror" is as inane as the "war on drugs": Both attempt to eradicate and incarcerate the enemy and ignore the root causes of the problems. Both will fail, but will kill and jail a lot of people.

King said all this and much more 40 years ago, and still the only way to wipe the blood from our hands is to regret our choice of war and pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. One does not regret adultery, for instance, and then continue the affair until the time is right to end it. One ends it.

So to answer Sen. Bayh's question, let's bring our soldiers back home to the people who need them most.

John Kaufman is a writer living in Milwaukee.

© 2006 The Capital Times