Letter: ‘War on terrorism’ doomed by nature to fail

Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006 | 7:29 a.m.

The United States is a terrifying place now. Since our declaration of war on terrorism I have wondered, how is terrorism fought? Terrorism is not a country, a group of people, or an object. There are terrorists of all ethnicities, races and religions. Terrorists live in the United States, the Middle East and possibly anywhere else.

Historically, our country has declared war on many things that we have not been able to beat. We declared war on drugs, crime, poverty and illiteracy. However, all those problems are still part of daily life. America's war on drugs, however, has been a 30-year war!

Furthermore, if a 30-year-long war, like America's war on drugs, has little success to show, what do we really expect to get out of a war against terrorism? At least with declaring war on drugs we know our enemy. We can find drug abusers because there are often physical signs associated with drug abuse. In contrast, we cannot predict terrorism, and often there are no signs to look for.

If President George W. Bush stopped declaring war on terrorism, would the terrorists stop declaring war on us? I wonder if the arrogance we display saying that we can beat an enemy that we do not know is the reason some people have issues with America.

History demonstrates that declaring war on "faceless" enemies has adverse effects. We should all be afraid of what those effects will be now. I challenge the government to find a way to face terrorism as a community effort and in turn educate the public. The responsibility to protect our country does not rest upon our president and Washington - it should be a collective effort.

Arial Dunson, Las Vegas