The Debate Over Terrorism
It's indeed unfortunate that there exists in the West a strong cabal of "terrorism experts" who's main response to any terrorist atrocity is to blame the West. Some go further and paint the world before the war in Iraq in rosy colors, seemingly indicating that the war in Iraq is at the root of terrorism's current resurgence and completely forgetting that September 11, 2001 took place 1.5 years before the war in Iraq and had been in the planning for more than 6 years previously.
One so-called "expert" who got me thinking today was Jessica Stern, author of "Terror in the Name of God" and a lecturer at Harvard. In an interview in Salon she claims that the war in Iraq is helping Al-Qaeda and that the United States is ignoring the humanitarian side of the war against terrorism and focusing almost exclusively on the military.
All good points and some of them I accept. However the root of Al-Qaeda's opposition to the West is its view of the West as decadent and corrupt. Al-Qaeda has stated numerous times that the West would not stand up to its fighters and pointed to the humiliating and ill-advised US withdrawal from Somalia in the 1990's as proof of its allegations. Indeed Jessica Stern should look to that event, where the US decided the loss of 19 soldiers was grounds for abandoning its commitment to the Horn of Africa region, as proof that appeasement doesn't work but instead fuels the ambitions and goals of terrorism.
I have visited Turkey twice, both as a tourist and as a scholar, and I can state unequivocally that the reason Turkey is being attacked by Al-Qaeda is because Turkey has turned its back on Islamic fundamentalism and its face to the West by following Ataturk's commands that religion was responsible for the corruption and disease of the Ottoman empire. Turkey didn't send troops to the war in Iraq, didn't allow US troops to cross its soil and has also decided not to send troops to post-war Iraq. Did any of this stop Al-Qaeda from attacking Turkey?
Even Saudi Arabia has been attacked by Al-Qaeda on numerous occasions and the Saudis have implemented every Islamic-fascist demand that Al-Qaeda has called for, as well as expelling all US troops from Saudi soil. Still attacks on the Saudi people continue, proving my point that when dealing with religiously-based terrorism there is no end to their demands and no way they can be met.
Stern and others like her have good points to make, and some of them are valid. But before they go blaming the Bush administration's war in Iraq for every current act of terrorism they should always return to this quote by Churchill: "Appeasement is hoping the alligator in the pond eats you last."
10:35:00 AM 
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