Can International Terrorism Be Stopped?

There is only one way to put a stop to the international terrorism that has been credited with bombings in New York City, Madrid, and London. Remember, these are people who are not only killing citizens of the western powers, but are wearing out horses killing Muslim citizens in Arab countries as well. How many Iraqi civilian deaths are at their hands? And this week we had the abduction and murder of the top Egyptian diplomat to Iraq with the threat that any Arab nation that supports the new government in Iraq will have its diplomats meet the same fate.

Right after 9/11 Bush had his opportunity. The entire free world had condemned the terrorist attack on New York City and was ready to do something about it. Bush himself put it right in saying we would attack any country that harbors terrorists. Had he immediately formed an International Coalition to do just that and followed through, the terrorist problem might not exist today.

But instead of investing this international political currency wisely, Mr. Bush saw fit to downplay Afghanistan and focus the brunt of our armed forces on a nation that had nothing to do with 9/11. While the nations that did harbor and support the terrorists, Pakistan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia were left alone, Bush hammered Iraq - not with the full power of the forces at his disposal, but with a sloppy agenda that has seen America get bogged down in a situtation that finds us spinning our military wheels while the number of American dead continues to mount.

The rest of the world, primed and ready to support an attack against the terrorists that had committed this heinous crime, watched in disbelief. No chest pounding inaccurate propaganda about WMDs and linking Iraq to the terrorists was going to force them into aiding and abetting the attack on another nation that posed no threat to anyone. Meanwhile, the terrorists have had a field day finger pointing at every American atrocity and using the whole mess in Iraq to justify the mass murder of thousands of people and to recruit more and more young men to their cause.

After the attack on London, the free world is united again in their contempt of terrorism. The major players, including Germany, Russia, and France, have publicly stated their support to squash international terrorism. It will be interesting to see how the British spend this currency. I don't expect them to use it to attack Northern Ireland as Bush might have in their place. I expect them to garner support from every aligned country to put pressure on Pakistan, Iran and the Saudis to assist in ridding the world of this curse. And I'm not talking about the kind of token resistance the Saudis have mustered with the blessings of the Bush administration. I'm talking about the governments of these three countries cracking down and with the help of the free world actually doing something about the cancer in their midst.

Then and only then will international terrorism be stopped. Every country in the world must look inside itself and ferret out the people who support indiscriminate killing of the world's citizens. It can be done.

| +Save/Share | |