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We killed 4 U.N. land mine workers in our night raids. We bombed them. They were staying in a building they had rented. It used to be a communications center. 

We can aim bombs to land within 30 feet of their target. With global positioning instruments we can send the bombs with the precise coordinates for longitude and latitude. We’ve spent the past four weeks gathering “intelligence.” Before we dropped the bombs, you might think we’d call the U.N. and say “Where are your people?” Or the U.N. might have called the Pentagon and said “Our people are here and here and here.” Intelligence. Actionable intelligence. 

Were our maps out of date? We didn’t know the U.N. had moved into the communications center? You might think after we had bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade we might make sure the maps were up to date. Intelligence. Actionable intelligence. 

You might think we might learn from experience. But all our experience of war suggests we don’t. My Lai. No Gun Ri. Hiroshima. Bataan. Stalingrad. Trench warfare. Wounded Knee. Fredericksburg. Antietem. Napoleon at Moscow. That in itself could be actionable intelligence. We’d learn that war and intelligence never go together. The whole thing is an oxymoron. 

Two months before Sept. 11 Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a bill (H.R. 2459) to establish a Department of Peace. Apparently it hasn’t passed yet. Let’s sign on as cosponsors. 

Land mines. People have been starving in Afghanistan for the past ten years because all the arable fields have been mined. Ten to 12 people a day were being injured or killed by land mines even before we started bombing the people who were trying to clear the minefields. Intelligence. 

Land mines. We are one of the countries that haven’t signed the land mine treaty. Our land mine manufacturers might get mad. No more campaign contributions from them. Actionable intelligence. 

Why aren’t landmines biodegradable? Why don’t they obsolesce so they can’t keep killing and crippling children year after year? Actionable intelligence. 

Bumper sticker with a picture of the earth and the caption: “Immediate Family.” We can call the Pentagon and say “Our people are here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here.” That’s actionable intelligence.  

Lee Helena Lawrence, former faculty member at Harvard University, is a psychologist living in Moraga