The Sept. 11 editorial in the Daily Bruin posed a question to
readers: Is America doing anything to change its ways so that this
doesn’t happen again? I interpreted this question to imply
that the United States had been acting in a manner that warranted
such a cowardly attack on Sept. 11., and I believe you are sorely
mistaken.
Admittedly, the United States is not perfect, but perfection is
an impossible standard to measure something against. Just for a
minute, let’s examine the values of our nation and the values
of those from which these terrorists originated and let’s
attempt to ascertain who should be the ones changing their ways
after Sept. 11.
One nation allows freedom of religion, speech and press while
the others allow freedom to persecute all religions except one,
freedom of speech as long as it is in support of the
government/dictatorship and freedom of state-run press.
One nation has equality of the sexes while in the others women
are lucky to even be considered second-class citizens. One nation
teaches its children tolerance while the others spew a rhetoric of
hate and glorification of “martyrdom.” In case you
haven’t guessed by now, the nation with all the valuable
freedoms for its citizens is the United States and the other
nations make up much of the Arab world.
The events of Sept. 11 weren’t carried out against us as a
response to American foreign policy or other actions carried out by
our government. They were the manifestation of the horrific
capabilities of a radical Islamic movement whose objective is not
to alter American policy but rather to destroy our
“infidel” way of life.
These terrorists have exhibited their intention of obliterating
the “infidels” not only in the United States but also
in India with the massacre of Hindus and Christians, who do not
have the slightest connection to the United States, as well as the
almost daily slaughter of Jews in Israel, among others. It is
clearly not U.S. policy that perpetuates these actions, but the
tragically misguided ideology of radical Islam.
To give in to these terrorist actions would effectively
legitimatize terrorism as an effective political tool, which would
have far reaching effects to the detriment of the civilized world.
Civilized nations should not attempt to appease terror; rather they
need to take proactive steps and fight it just as the United States
did in Afghanistan, and just as the Israelis are doing in the West
Bank and Gaza. Once you fight the terrorists and demonstrate to
them that you have the intestinal fortitude to withstand their
attacks and become stronger in your resolve to defeat them, they
will renounce terror as a tool. This has been shown in Israel where
the Israelis fought the terrorist regime of Yasser Arafat as well
as the terrorist groups until they realized terror would not
prevail.
To answer the question asked in your editorial, what has the
United States changed during the past year, the answer is ““ a
lot. A tit-for-tat policy with the terrorists has turned into a
full scale war against terrorism, which includes a coalition of
nearly 90 nations. The United States is doing exactly what it
should ““ taking a proactive approach to eradicating the
cancer of terrorism.