Presidential candidate Howard Dean visited Madison Sunday and will no doubt spawn much conversation as to whether he, or any other Democrat, can unseat George W. Bush from the White House. Though the ground beneath Bush looks shakier now than at any other point in his term, it is widely believed that he will be capable of defeating any challenger next November.
Bush's main advantage seems to come in the form of protecting America from the boogeyman that is international terrorism. In a country dominated by misplaced fear and excessive paranoia, his homeland security measures have been met with much acclaim. This \advantage,"" though, is also Bush's greatest weakness.
If curbing international terrorism is the trump card in the Republican deck, it is a poor one. The war against terror is a complete failure.
Our moves against the myriad of terrorist organizations have all been bombings, raids, freezing of bank accounts, etc. While this will prevent an individual from carrying out a planned bombing, it will not persuade them to give up their cause. Motivation and radical fanaticism are the greatest weapons in the terrorists' arsenal, and such weapons are not likely to be shocked and awed by the poorly thought-out solutions of the U.S. government.
Dealing with the roots of terrorism is being completely ignored in favor of producing tangible results. By not addressing the problems that draw people to groups such as al Qaeda and the Islamic Jihad, the current administration is sacrificing long-term well-being for short-term results and giving the scared and easily persuaded American constituency a false sense of security.
It is true that our efforts against al Qaeda, Jemaah Islamiyah and other unions of pathetic malcontents seem impressive. However, like the mythical Hydra of ancient Greece, when we cut one head off, two will simply grow back in its place.
People volunteer to be suicide bombers and operation planners out of bitterness. In almost all cases, they are poor individuals from the fringes of society who have seen much death and violence. Feelings of desperation, the need for revenge and the desire to blame someone else for their misfortune are the life forces that keep terrorism alive.
Can such a thing be undone by a few F-16s? Or a fleet of underqualified high-school graduates stationed throughout airports? No. This can only be done by bringing the fringes of the world closer to the center. The current administration has already acknowledged that countries in poverty can become hotbeds for the extremists we are fighting. So why the utter disregard in addressing such problems? If a need for funding is the issue, start with the hundreds of millions of dollars supposed to go toward finding Saddam Hussein's phantom weapons.
The right-wingers in the United States are very focused on stopping terrorism but are sickeningly negligent in regard to how to go about this. There is no cap on spending for air-to-ground missiles, but donating a small portion of our budget toward getting food and medicine to these impoverished areas disgusts Bush's supporters. Yet, these same sages, in their seemingly infinite foolishness, still have the audacity to question why America is hated.
In this way, nothing has been done to eliminate terrorism from our world. The quick-fix mentality of the United States has only increased the pool of candidates who have nothing to lose by risking death to fight the West. For all those Americans who have numerous locks on their doors and enjoy the freedom our military actions over the last few years have allowed us, know that the threat has in no way diminished and that it is a matter of time before the animosity towards us shows itself in the form of another violent act.
Myth has it that the Hydra was eventually defeated by the ingenuity and bravery of Hercules. If America continues to view the war on terrorism from behind a veil of ignorance, we'll have to do so with the Bush cabinet.
