TERRORIST RECRUITING Editor -- While I appreciate your Sept. 24 analysis of a U.S.-Iraq war, I am astounded that you fail to clearly specify what is perhaps the most important reason for avoiding another war with Iraq: that such a war will not only alienate the rest of the world, but the resulting increase in anti- American sentiment will strengthen the hand of terrorist groups by filling their ranks with new recruits.Fred, you have a point, but if you wear a hat nobody will notice. Ha ha ha! just kidding. Seriously though, you are right in the sense that it could be seen by some as "un-American" for the United States to support Israel. After all, the American thing to do in the 1930s and early 1940s was to stand back and allow Jews to be murdered by the millions. And now that you mention it, we really could have avoided all those mean soldiers/terrorists, whatever you want to call them, from Japan and Germany in World War II. If only we had just taken Pearl Harbor as a signal to be less arrogant and mind our own goddamned business and to stay out of other peoples wars on far-away continents where we don't belong. After all, the UN Security Council at the time didn't give us permission to fight back, now did it?Our policy of beating up on Iraq and its people while continuing to support Israel and to condone three and a half decades of military occupation of Palestinians is not only the dumbest way to fight terror, it's also downright un-American.
FRED VOSTE
San Francisco
But since you want to be absolutely certain that you don't cause other people to become terrorists, here's something else to think about, and in terms that might make sense to you. Do you have any idea what would happen if Israel were destroyed by its neighbors as you seem to feel it should be? Well, you will have recruited a whole bunch of really, really, pissed off desperate, oppressed, homeless and poverty-stricken (no oil for Shlomo) Jewish terrorists. They will target people like you who write anti-Israeli letters to the editor. They will break into your house, circumcise you to death and then make matza out of your blood. And you will only have yourself to blame.
Thank you for your letter and please write again soon.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at September 26, 2002 04:20 PMSince terrorists' reasons for attacking the USA are merely "rationalized" hatred, they do not need much to recruit new terrorists. I am not bothered in the least that someone hates me or the USA. But if they have weapons, then I'm worried. Destroy as many of them and their supporters first, then win the hearts and minds of potential recruits. Do the opposite and it will cost many more lives. That's the lesson that we should have learned from the last 200 years of US warfare.
Posted by: Ipsofacto on September 26, 2002 07:32 PM