The Solution to Terror

In seeking to prevent the continued spread of instability that breeds terrorism, the United States has, in the past three decades, promoted a strategy of military occupation and forceful alteration of markets and governments towards democratic capitalism. This kind of mentality is the crux of the problem. When the approach to finding a solution is: attack and change the perpetrator of discord, we will inevitably continue to find failure. As the saying goes "you cannot fight fire with fire". Technically, you can - see the US government in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it will never find lasting success. The heat of conflict will forever fuel dens of angry discontent to breed new conflict.

Islamic fundamentalist terrorism exists because a significant portion of the population of our planet strongly resents the status quo, led by the Americans, to the point where the logical solution for them becomes violent protest. In a civilization such as ours it is impractical and outrageous to believe that a group of people could act on the basis of irrationality. There must be a realization in Washington that terrorists act with logic. It is cold logic, bred from the frustrations of helplessness, and the anger of neglect. It is a brutal logic, tempered by a belief that violence is the only cry for help and the only means for a voice to be heard.

As long as there is subjugation of other cultures and disrespect promoting unfair play, as long as Western corporations exercise a power advantage by leveraging the Western judicial system and their financial and economic strength to muscle competition, there will be fear, hatred and, at times, violent protest. It is an unavoidable affect of the frustration built by broken promises and unaided poverty. It is a direct result of a careless and wanton approach to American foreign policy that features intense favoritism and domination of resources, often leaving large swathes of people completely unaccounted.

I have written before that an ideology is a hydra, you cannot kill an it by cutting off its heads. The ideology of anti-Americanism cannot be cured by further promotion of American imperialism by defending it using military force. In order to end terrorism we must address the ideology of the terrorists. This is not giving in! This is not giving them what they want. This is finding a cure to their hatred, frustration and anger to prevent further violence. This is addressing their needs to relieve helplessness and neglect.

What is needed is to bring countries harboring terrorists out of poverty and provide them with aide and assistance to foster strong markets and sound governments. This will remove the core reason for their cause, effectively end cash flows to terrorism from sympathetic donors and undermine the very reason that terrorists exist: as an outlet for oppression.

Until this new approach is practiced, there will forever be neglected peoples harboring hives of anger. And while this reality is allowed to persist there will continue to be instability on this planet.