Letter: Changing image, policies necessary

Thursday, Aug. 26, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

The 9/11 Commission report says that al-Qaida had what we did not have -- creativity, imagination and thinking outside the box. Then the commission goes on to suggest some inside-the-box things as remedies, such as where to attack al-Qaida, how to defend the homeland and some vague ideas about political solutions. However, creative thinking requires a willingness to challenge our basic assumptions. For an example, we could change our national security strategy from imperial world domination to gaining strength through cooperation.

One creative idea from this new mindset might be to bring a resolution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict by withdrawing our aid to Israel until it considers giving back to the Palestinians part of their own country.

A second idea is to withdraw our troops from Saudi-Arabia and Iraq, as it was our troop occupation of Arab countries that sparked the attack on 9/11.

Next, we should pull out all the United States companies from Iraq and give the country genuine sovereignty, including economic sovereignty.

A fourth idea is to establish cooperation with Middle East countries as well as with countries that used to be our allies.

The Pentagon, the World Trade Center and the Capitol were targets on 9-11 because they symbolized our military, industrial, and political complex. As long as we maintain the image of an empire, Americans will never be safe from terrorism.

JERRY BITTS