The War On Terrorism Lee Shin Yin
“They
announced that another plane had hit the World Trade Center. The brothers who
heard the news were overjoyed by it." – excerpt from Bin Laden tape.
The horrific scenes of planes full of innocent people colliding into buildings full of thousands of people will forever be plastered in American minds, like an ugly stain. While the world was mourning the loss of the lives of these people, there were some who rejoiced. Why do they hate Americans so much? Proceeding September 11th, the United States government had declared war on terrorism and geared up into military action. With the support of most of the American people, the Taliban were destroyed, and Osama Bin Laden, with a 25 million dollar bounty on his head, cannot be on the run for long. Although Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban are out of power, the terrorist threat is still very real. Military action is not the long-term solution of wiping out terrorism. We must understand the cause of this intense hate, and solve the problems related to it to win this new war.
In
any military campaign, collateral and structural damage is almost inevitable.
The lives of the Afghanis would not be getting any better, only more
corpses and rubble. To the citizens of the area, Islam is their only comfort from
the harsh realities of life. This
is a reason why these people take their religion so seriously, almost in a
fanatical way. Taking advantage of
this, people with extreme views of Islam would spread their teachings and
receive support. In some parts of
the Middle East, especially Afghanistan,
life is
harsh around the dry, barren land where water and fertile soil is scarce.
In Afghanistan, war is actually a way of life.
The warlords make a living from waging war with other warlords of other
tribes. Adding salt to the wound,
civilians become victims to land mines on a regular basis.
The current extremist leaders may have been killed or captured, but the
beliefs are stronger than ever. When
another good leader arises, this fanaticism in Islam will be turned into more
hate and terrorism. What is America
going to do then, go through another military campaign?
In
many Muslim countries, the children go to schools where they are taught the
Koran from a very young age. There
are also many Madrasahs, which are schools that teach only Islam and the Koran.
Teachers who have extreme views of Islam run some of the schools.
It is not hard to understand why there are large numbers of extremists
around, especially when children are taught to think that way from a very young
age. Muslim extremism would become
like a second nature to these children. There
will be nothing that the Special Forces or Marines can do to stop these children
from growing up into terrorists or extremists.
No military action can. Proper
education should be brought to these children.
With knowledge in Science, History, Social Science and other subjects,
these children will be able to make the right decisions and choices on what to
believe.
The
more military action that is used by America, the more oppressed the Muslims
feel. From history, they saw that
European empires colonized most of the Middle East and Africa.
In recent years, they feel culturally invaded by the West.
The
Muslims felt cheated when the United Nations formed Israel from
Palestinian and Jordanian lands. In
the local propaganda, they were shown images of Israeli soldiers with machine
guns and tanks fighting Palestinian youths armed with pebbles. In school and at home, the frustrated Muslims blame the
United States for all of their troubles and misfortunes. America became the cause of all the misfortunes of the world.
Some people resorted to terrorism. If
America implements military action in the long run, many more will.
Muslims
from all over the world sympathize with the plight of Middle Eastern Muslims.
When military action is taken, and civilians die, it is interpreted as
the bullying of fellow Muslims. In
the bombing of the Taliban, around 3,500 Afghan civilians were killed.
Comparatively, about 3,500 people died in the World Trade Center attack.
Muslims around the globe questioned the United States whether Muslim
lives meant less than American lives. New
anger would flare across the world, potentially breeding new terrorists.
It would be like trying put out a raging fire with gasoline.
A thousand more Osama Bin Ladens will emerge from around the globe.
Instead
of destroying lives with the money used in building bombs and training troops,
why not rebuild lives with it. The
money should be used to improve security in the United States, cleaning up
terrorist activity in the country and sending aid to poor Muslim nations. This
way, the United States can improve relations with Middle Eastern
countries, and also bring closer the two very different societies,
which had greatly distanced themselves in recent years.
In this tedious war on terrorism, crushing Bin Laden and Al Qaida would not end it. Understanding the mind of the terrorists is an important tool to prevent children from growing up with the same values of Osama Bin Laden. In this war, it is not the right strategy to fight fire with fire. Instead, fight fire with water.