DISPATCHES: Looking deeper at the cause of terror

We are a nation of laws and constitu­tional liberties. We must be careful that, in our efforts to safeguard our security, we do not succumb to the temptation to sacrifice our freedoms.

By: Hank Kalet
   When terrorists linked with Saudi Arabian dissident Osama bin Laden hijacked four American airliners and used them as bombs to destroy the Twin Towers and attack the Pentagon, Americans were shocked.
   What could cause such a barbarous attack? What is it about America that could engender such hate?
   The answers are not so simple. The terrorists have a laundry list of grievances, ranging from our secular culture and democratic values to the worldwide reach of our economy and military.
   It was no accident that the terrorists targeted the World Trade Center and the Pentagon — symbols of our economic power and military might.
   But to say, as so many in the peace movement have, that we have brought this on ourselves is the height of hypocrisy, almost on a par with the loathsome comments made by the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the Rev. Pat Robertson in the wake of the attack. The pair said the attacks were God’s judgment on a spiritually weak nation.
   Yes, American foreign policy and the reach of our economy and culture have stirred resentments.
   "There is widespread feeling in the Islamic world that the U.S. is not on the side of ordinary people. And this atmosphere makes it easier for some to become terrorists," Professor Frank Von Hippel of Princeton University said at a peace rally in Princeton on Friday.
   We have been arrogant, using our military power to prop up dictatorships and brutal monarchies around the globe (in Saudi Arabia, for instance). We’ve bombed Lebanon, the Sudan, Iraq, Libya, funded militia groups designed to take down unfriendly governments (the Taliban and Mr. bin Laden have been indirect beneficiaries).
   These are the kinds of actions Americans need to be more conscious about and it is why we need to be more involved in the making of our foreign policy.
   But this analysis only goes so far. Address these grievances and the same extremists would find new ones to justify their actions. This is not "the chickens coming home to roost," as some would imply, but an attack on American freedoms, plain and simple, because American-style freedoms are at odds with the theocratic states for which Mr. bin Laden and his supporters long.
   Columnist Christopher Hitchens, writing in The Nation magazine, said the terrorists "represent fascism with an Islamic face."
   "What they abominate about ‘the West,’ to put it in a phrase, is not what Western liberals don’t like and can’t defend about their own system, but what they do like about it and must defend: its emancipated women, its scientific inquiry, its separation of religion from the state," Mr. Hitchens writes.
   The fact is, President George Bush got it right last week when he addressed the nation.
   "They hate what we see right here in this chamber, a democratically elected government," he said in his nationally televised address. "Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms — our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other."
   This is a holy war on the part of the terrorists, one designed, as the president said, "not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life."
   That’s why it is important that we remember what it is we stand for as a nation. We are a nation of laws and constitutional liberties. We must be careful that, in our efforts to safeguard our security, we do not succumb to the temptation to sacrifice our freedoms.
   If that were to happen, if our society forsakes the freedoms we hold dear, we will have given the terrorists another victory.
Hank Kalet is managing editor of the South Brunswick Post. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]