Malala Yousafzai

Dear Mr. President,

The shooting of Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old schoolgirl on a bus crowded with schoolchildren in Pakistan’s valley of Swat, rightly provokes worldwide outrage. Front page news in the New York Times yesterday and again today, the articles speak of her courage, eloquence and vision not only for the education of girls and women but for children’s rights, ideological anathema to the Taliban. Education and outspoken truth are always the enemies of oppressors and so, the oppressors—in this case the Taliban—targeted her for assassination and sent a team of masked gunmen to kill her. Shot in the head and neck, she clings to life and the Taliban vows to strike again if she survives. As I read the stories, I could not help but contrast the coverage and the description of this victim with the equally outrageous targeted assassinations that kill and wound hundreds of unnamed and not-famous children in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Ethiopia and other places around the globe at the hands of another oppressor. Those who are killed as a result of American drone strikes or Special Ops raids or by soldiers trained to kill regardless of guilt or innocence simply because everyone within the strike zone is the enemy, guilty unless proven innocent posthumously. There are no glowing tributes to these anonymous victims, no back stories of their lives and aspirations, their dreams for the future. Nor is there a bounty on the heads of their killers and justice will never be done for they are collateral damage, a euphemism for the slaughter of innocents, war crimes and crimes against humanity. None of these victims of war will show up on the front pages of the New York Times, their voices will never be heard, but they too are victims just as Malala Yousafzai, and they too, deserve recognition and respect. All wars are ultimately against the children, Mr. President, and the targeted assassinations you order every week when you select nominees for your Kill List is no different than the Taliban leader who ordered the assassination of a 14-year old girl in the Valley of Swat. Authorization of a signature strike is no different than the attack on the World Trade Center. All war is barbaric, immoral and stupid. The War on Terror is a war with enemies everywhere and nowhere, a war that destroys everyone and for which there can be no victory. There is no excuse to continue the killing and no justification for the murder of innocents, children or adults.

Malala Yousafzai, March 2012, photograph by T Mughal/EPA