In this age of nuclear weapons and the Internet, the biggest threat the U.S. now faces is terrorism. This is not the threat of North Korea sending inter-continental ballistic missiles into the middle of Washington, D.C. This is a guy with a bomb blowing himself up under a building. This is a handful of well-organized and well-funded middle class men crashing airplanes into symbols of American prosperity and power.
In fact, this "new" threat that Bush speaks of is not very new at all. Israel, a country that we call our ally, has been dealing with PLO-sanctioned terrorism for decades. It seems like every month another Hamas bomb detonates in the middle of a crowded marketplace, or a bus carrying children to school is blown up.
Why do groups like Hamas and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network resort to terrorism? Why do they commit the most cowardly and, in some ways, the most psychologically damaging type of violence? Terrorism is the weapon of the little guy. The person who is disgruntled, disenfranchised, disillusioned can inflict untold damage on the hulking enemy.
Perhaps the hatred that bin Laden has for the U.S. is equaled by the hatred that Palestinian terrorist groups, like Hamas, have for Israel. The Palestinians fight certainly hits closer to home for them, since they are fighting on land that they want to "reclaim." Bin Laden, on the other hand, is hiding out in Afghanistan, a country whose government is more than happy to protect him. Bin Laden also has no designs on taking over American territory: He would just like to disrupt it and convert it all to a Taliban-like Muslim government.
The similarity between Hamas and bin Laden's organization is the most important one: They maliciously kill innocent civilians for the advancement of a radical cause. Al Qaeda's cause is to destroy the hypocritical, cocky, sinning American society, while Hamas' cause is to kick all Jews out of Israel, a land they claim is theirs.
We do not have to discuss the merits of bin Laden's cause to be able to say with certainty that his killing of innocent civilians is horribly wrong. Similarly, without going into the question of whether Hamas or Israel is right, we can certainly say that the murdering of innocent civilians is a terrible and unjustified action.
Given this basic similarity between Hamas and Al Qaeda, one question comes to mind: Why is it that we support the U.S.'s right to strike back at bin Laden, yet many of us call the Israelis murderers and oppressors of the Palestinians? Why is it acceptable for America to strike back when attacked, but not acceptable for Israel to do the same? When bin Laden attacked our innocent civilians, we struck back at his network, not Afghani civilians. Similarly, when Hamas murders Israeli civilians, Israel strikes back at members of that organization, not innocent Palestinian civilians.
We must be able to see the similarities in the two situations and not differentiate between them. We cannot negotiate with bin Laden, just as Israel cannot negotiate with Hamas; retaliatory force is the only option. I believe it is imperative that we destroy terrorist networks around the world, and I also believe it is imperative that Israel protects its citizens by the only means possible, striking back with force.
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