Letter: It’s up to press, informed citizens to halt terror

Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2001 | 8:44 a.m.

Recently Congress essentially said to President Bush, "Here's a big bag of money. Do whatever it takes." Then Bush and CNN declared war on the abstraction "terrorism."

While Ben Franklin and the boys might have raised some eyebrows over that, we accepted it. Yet even our "war on drugs" had a better referent. We know what a drug is; but somehow that war resulted in missionaries getting shot down, while the unlawful drugs kept flowing.

A clear definition of "terrorism," a clear understanding of the root causes, and an effective plan are needed if we hope for success.

I guess terrorism means those people who are responsible for the events of Sept. 11. That's good, not for the sake of justice, but because there are people out there trying to kill us. Added to the list of enemies are all countries that support terrorism. I'm sure the president does not mean the U.S., which was first to support the Afghanistan terrorists during the Cold War. He means "them," the Middle East countries.

Yet some of our Middle East alliance countries support terrorism by sending their most intelligent men to fundamentalist academies. These men do not have the benefit of our nonsecular public education with its prohibitions against the union of church and state.

Further, these economically failed dictatorships also support terrorism by using their controlled media to demonize the U.S. I hope that some political action will be taken to correct this. I also hope that something short of nuclear war will be used to change those policies.

Since Congress has abdicated its responsibilities for the sake of unity, it may be the job of the free press and an informed citizenry to ensure that "whatever it takes" is effective without leading to disaster.

JERRY BITTS