Still true more than 3 years later

My wife was going through some old files and found a copy of an article from an issue of the New York Review of Books. It was written on September 20,2001, nine days after the attack on the Towers, by Philip Wilcox, who had served as Ambassador at Large for Counterterrorism from 1994 to 1997. Had we followed his advice, I suspect the world would be a better place today. Some quotes:

“The most important deficiency in US counterterrorism policy has been the failure to address the root causes of terrorism.”

“But the US should, for its own self-protection, expand efforts to reduce the pathology of hatred before it mutates into even greater danger.”

“The US must also realize that, notwithstanding our great power, indeed because of it, we cannot dictate respect and cooperation.”

“We should also search for ways to strengthen the common bonds between Western value and Islam to combat the notion of a ‘clash of civilizations’ and to weaken the Islamist extremist fringe that hates the West and supports terrorist actions.”

Again, until we realize that force alone will not defeat terrorism, we’ll never learn how to live according to our ideals in the 21^st century.