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Following the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington, DC on September 11, 2001, the United States was quick to declare a war on terrorism. This was soon followed by the American invasion on Afghanistan and later of Iraq. The New Webster Dictionary of the English Language describes terrorism as "a system of government by terror." Besides, terror is described as "extreme fear that agitates the body and mind."

Nature of Terrorism

If we recall, the French Revolution brought terror in the entire nation as those occupying the seat of government proceeded to execute all opponents mercilessly and brutally. This covered the period from April 1793 to July 1974. Terrorism may stem from a government or it may also stem from a group of individuals who act on their own independently of any government. Either way, a tremendous amount of suffering is inflicted unnecessarily on many innocent people in a disgusting and revolting way.

The brutal terrorist attack on the United States will never be justified till the end of times. The question that has been raised and that needs an answer is this: In declaring a war on terrorism, did the United States adopt the appropriate means to eradicate this problem properly and effectively from the surface of our planet? The United States President went on to say on national television that this American nation reserves the right to wage pre-emptive strikes on any global area that may be deemed to be dangerous to the security of this country.

Some of the greatest statesmen of the 20th century, that included Pope John Paul II, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, and Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, told the US President to be very cautious. The Pope even asked the US President not to invade Iraq because, he said: “A war on Iraq is bound to create great animosities between Christians and Moslems; besides," he added, “Iraq may then develop into a region where terrorism would reach a point beyond control."

Later, Nelson Mandela said of the American invasion of Iraq: "The United States has emerged to be the most dangerous country on earth." Moreover, Oscar Arias asserted, like Pope Pius XII said on the eve of World War I, that “in a war everyone is a loser and no one is a winner." Since the US President declared that the war was over, following the American invasion of Iraq, and that his mission was accomplished, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis were killed or maimed brutally and the infrastructure of several cities was destroyed leaving people homeless, with no electricity, no food and no water.

Provision of Good Remedies

Besides, over 2,000 Americans lost their lives unnecessarily and several thousands more were maimed with arms or legs amputated, not to mention those that entered into a state of depression some of whom committed suicide. The great saintly Pope John Paul II told explicitly the US President that what the world needs was not a "war on terrorism" but “the provision of appropriate and adequate remedies that would cure radically and effectively the sources that lead to brutal acts of terror." In waging a war on terrorism, the United States is faced with a big handicap. Since the foundation of this nation over 225 years ago, the USA has prepared itself always to fight wars against governments of some kind.

This nation knew its enemy and always figured out a way how to deal with the situation. It has always viewed the preparation and the waging of war in terms of having a big military operation that is equipped with sophisticated weaponry and devastating military machinery. In fact, this nation spends more on the military and on the manufacture of weapons of destruction than all the nations of the world combined. In a war, we always knew the name and the location of the country we were going to fight: the British and the French, the Russians and the Germans, the Chinese and the Japanese, the Spanish and the Portuguese and so on and so forth. A strategy of some kind could be carefully planned and the war would then be executed with a sizable degree of success.

However, when it comes to terrorism, we are dealing with waging a war with individuals from every walk of life and profession and at any age imaginable. To make things worse, we do not have the faintest idea of who such terrorists may be except for uttering a dozen of names picked up from here and there, as we have witnessed in this never-ending Iraqi turmoil. To make things worse, while the terrorists know fully well their enemy, the USA, and where it is located, the Americans have no idea were the terrorists are and who they are. They could be relatively young men and women who come from very walk of life and profession and who wear no military uniforms.

Besides, so called terrorists are not assigned to any national army and they do not wear any insignia that would enable us to distinguish them. This enables the Americans to become fully vulnerable in spite of their sophisticated weapons of destruction. At the same time, the virtual anonymity of prospective terrorists is bound to remain for as long as this conflict may last, for months, years, and decades! If it is true that history repeats itself the world is bound to witness, during this very same 21st century, the end of Goliath with a mere sling shot.

Instigation of Terrorism

Very sadly, the United States, with its machismo and arrogance, has instigated the formation of several duplications of little David who is ready to strike unnoticeably, undetected, and at a time least expected. For the United States to reverse its present trend in dealing with terrorism is not yet too late. All the American nation needs to do is to follow the guidance provided by Pope John Paul II in this regard. We need to go without further delay to the very source of this seemingly uncontrollable problem. Several months ago, some NGOs working closely with UNICEF in the Middle East asked a simple question to young Palestinians who ranged between 8 to 12 years of age.

They were asked: "What would you like to do when you grow up?" For some 80% of these children the answer was quick and unanimous: "Killing Americans." These young Palestinians may be viewed by American politicians who are trenched deeply in the culture of war as "prospective future terrorists." So, what shall we do about them? Shall we try to follow the footsteps of Herod who killed all the children in Bethlehem to make sure the so called King of the Jews, Jesus Christ, would be dead and gone before he even grows up? Ironically, Herod got rid of all the children of the time except for the one he really was after. If Herod was the US President today, he would have followed the same present US belligerent foreign policies, with no positive results whatsoever.

If we were to go to the source of the problem of terrorism, then our eyes may finally be widely opened as to see things in true perspective. Appropriate steps may then be taken to solve the problem of terrorism effectively. In fact, when these same Palestinian children were asked as to why they wanted to kill Americans as their established goal in life, they said: "Because American weapons have killed our dear fathers and mothers, our brothers and sisters….. because American weapons have destroyed our homes and we lost everything we had: no food, no water, no clothes, no place where we could sleep at night…… because such weapons have maimed our relatives and friends whose arms or legs were amputated, and have severely disfigured others for life."

These young and helpless Palestinians added saying: "In view of this, you may realize why we hate Americans and want to kill them. American weapons took away from us our dear and beloved ones. They also took away from us the will to live in the midst of continued American terror. We see Americans as the source of all our deprivations, of our crucial suffering, and of our eventual death. Yes, we hate them and we want to kill as many as we can even if we were to die with them at the same time." Of course, statements of this nature make us realize fully well how logical it is to have the formation of suicide bombers everywhere.

Effective Solution to Problems

From this tangible reality we may conclude that if the United States were to take the initiative to stop the further suffering of people in the Middle East and other global areas, which has been singled out as the real source of terrorism against the United States, this problem is bound to be solved. It is bound to be eradicated from the surface of the world before we know it. Theoretically, this may sound to be easy to do but, in practice, it is rather difficult to execute for the simple reason that the USA is a creature of capitalism whose ultimate goal is the continued accumulation of money and wealth and not the real caring of people.

There is nothing wrong with the accumulation of money and wealth. But when we consider that the big corporations would do anything to achieve this goal, even through the infliction of pain on millions of innocent people, the situation cannot get worse. This tyrannical system, which wants to control global economy, has instigated the kind of terrorism the world is facing today, which is bound to continue until the capitalistic system collapses or gets modified by becoming more humane. The US declaration of "war on terrorism" is merely a fantasy. If any meaningful war is to be declared at all, it should be a "war on the abuses and exploitations of capitalism," which is same as big corporations.

Global terrorism is bound to come to an end only after we eliminate or reduce global suffering. Our governments, headed by the USA, should divert the money spent on weapons and the military to provide all people with free health care and free education, with good housing facilities, with enough food and with adequate hospitals and transportations. Money spent on weapons and the military should go for the discovery of permanent cures to such diseases as cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and heart disease, in addition to air and water pollution. Moreover, human rights in all forms should be safeguarded. The USA in particular must take the initiative to develop an international program of disarmament and arms control. If this were to take place, the existence of terrorism would have no purpose and it will wither away sooner than later.

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