I am a Pakistani, a former officer of my country's air force and intelligence services, a close companion of Osama bin Laden in the early days of the Afghan resistance when we fought together against the "evil" Soviets. I am a grandfather and a devout, uncompromising, long-bearded Muslim.
In short, I am what many of you in the United States would today refer to as a "terrorist."
But I and my long-bearded brothers are no more the terrorists than your president and his military advisors.
Legions of Muslims around the world -- and be sure there are many more of us than of you -- agree that a madman should not possess weapons that can threaten or destroy humanity. We despise the tyrant Saddam Hussein's cruelty against his own people every bit as much as you. We are clear in our minds that Hussein's extreme hypocrisy, such as living in palaces whose construction costs would feed a million people in my country for a year, must be dealt with. This includes his removal from power.
The question is how to do it so innocent lives are not lost at the hands of what are perceived by our people as imperialist powers, and in so doing, not losing more and more of our bright minds into what one of your writers has aptly referred to as the "basement" of the Arab and Muslim world.
We worry as much about our children going out one day and blowing themselves up as you worry about them coming at you to do so, whether in Israel or on your streets in America.
Your government's actions are breeding our homicidal bombers at such a fast rate that we cannot cope, what with the meager resources we have to counter the threat you pose to us. Your government proposes a course of action against Iraq and beyond that will lead only to one thing: the breeding of tens of thousands of baby Osamas who will be ever more desperate to tear you down, just as your leaders today seek to destroy the Iraqi regime and next, the one in North Korea or Iran or maybe one day in my country.
We in the Umma, the Muslim world, believe -- not unjustifiably if one studies history -- that American and British rulers, with their laser-guided weapons of mass terror, want to subjugate others who do not wish to be ruled.
We are often amazed at how Americans have allowed their leaders to create an artificial confrontation with us when it is not needed.
