U.S. should put a stop to carnage in Afghanistan.

Byline: CHRISTINA COWGER and JOCELYN WARREN For The Register-Guard

ON JULY 1, AMERICAN forces accidentally rained down tragedy on an Afghan village, turning a wedding celebration into a scene of carnage. As we in the United States prepared to celebrate Independence Day, about 40 of the wedding guests were buried. Gravely injured survivors, some of them young children, writhed in pain in a Kandahar hospital. Some had not yet learned that their families were dead.

Although the final report on this catastrophe is not yet available, it is beyond argument that, once again, American forces have destroyed innocent lives. Can we lament these deaths and maimings as a sad but necessary result of stamping out terrorism? Unfortunately, no.

On June 16, a front-page article in The New York Times quoted "senior government officials" as saying that the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan has not made us safer.

To quote the Times: "Classified investigations of the al-Qaeda threat now under way at the FBI and CIA have concluded that the war in Afghanistan failed to diminish the threat to the United States, the officials said. Instead, the war might have complicated counterterrorism efforts by dispersing potential attackers across a wider geographic area."

This news should be trumpeted as loudly as the latest warning about possible fresh terrorist attacks. The U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan has made the world more dangerous by causing al-Qaeda to fan out into neighboring Pakistan, Kashmir and Iran. The region has become more militarized and less stable. And plans for pre-emptive strikes against nations such as Iraq have only raised the level of tension.

Moreover, we are less safe, not safer, when millions of the world's people are moved to hate the United States for needlessly destroying innocent lives. On July 2, the BBC's Kate Clark reported that there have been other accidental bombings and shootings of Afghan civilians by U.S. forces. NPR reporter Ivan Watson informed us on July 3 that there is widespread outrage in Afghanistan at this latest bloodbath. The fact that the tragedies were unintended does little to alleviate the anger.

Instead of waging more senseless war, the United States should go along with the Afghan call for an international peacekeeping force that operates throughout the country, not just in Kabul.

Ordinary people in conflicted areas all over the world are jeopardized by the United States' refusal to support effective peacekeeping. Afghanistan is only one example.

But how will we destroy al-Qaeda and make the world safe from terrorism? It won't be easy, but the current approach of blazing guns is not working. Here are some alternative strategies:

We need to use police and intelligence cooperation to track down and apprehend the masterminds of the Sept. 11 atrocity. We should work to create an international criminal justice forum in which they could be tried - and supporting the current International Criminal Court would be a good step.

We need to earn the goodwill of the peoples of Middle Eastern and Central Asian nations where al-Qaeda and its sympathizers sustain themselves. To do that, we need to become honest brokers in the Israel-Palestine conflict. We should condemn attacks on all civilians and forge international support for a process that assures true peace and security to both sides of the conflict. We should work to secure economic justice and human rights for both Israelis and Palestinians.

The United States should stop pouring a steady stream of weapons into the Middle East and Central Asia. Instead, we should propose and advocate for regional disarmament. We should become supporters of human rights and democracy in parts of the world where the United States has long backed "useful" dictatorial regimes.

In the long run, what will really make us all safer is a more just and sustainable world. We are told that 122 million people will die by 2015 of hunger-related causes. The growing worldwide gap between haves and have-nots is widely viewed as the product of economic policies and environmental practices pushed by the powerful here in the United States.

If we are to drain the sea in which terrorist fish swim, we must start measuring U.S. activity abroad by whether it enhances the well-being of all people, not whether it improves the bottom line or maintains an ally in power.

In the short run, we need to stop the carnage in Afghanistan. We must insist that our representatives in Congress object to the Bush administration's course. We call on Sens. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden and on Rep. Peter DeFazio to speak out publicly, in Oregon and on Capitol Hill, to put an end to this cruel and useless war.

Christina Cowger and Jocelyn Warren prepared this column on behalf of Progressive Responses, a program of the Community Alliance of Lane County. The alliance was formerly known as Clergy and Laity Concerned.