There is a Solution to Terrorism
There is a clear correlation between terror and justice. We just need to look beneath all the rhetoric.
Terrorism has been coined as something that has erupted from evil, among people that are absolutely against the virtues of freedom, liberty, justice and democracy--qualities that have been identified as exclusively belonging to the West. The fact is that beneath all this rhetoric is a hidden fact that is not really all that far from the truth.
If one reads or hears the statements of even the most renowned enemy of the U.S., Osama Bin Laden--the fact is that he asks for the West to put an end to its presence on all Muslim lands, but apart from that, he also demands justice, and questions the justice that the U.S claims to pioneer around the world. Although, quite controversially, he equates justice with revenge, and believes that if the U.S. has the right to kill innocent Muslims, and back a state such as Israel in killing Palestinians, he has the right to wage the same sort of war against the West. It is the same appraoch, just from the opposite side.
Bin Laden sees justice in getting even, but is that not what the U.S. did as well, when it waged its war on Afghanistan and Iraq, in the name of justice and to conquer the 'terror' that the Taliban and Saddam Hussein put their people under. From the same perspective, Bin Laden did the same thing, attacked the U.S. to put an end to what he viewed as the hegemonic terror of the U.S. It is pure perspective, but both speak about justice and demand freedom from each other. This, however, only explains the fact that there are different perspectives of what terror is and what constitutes terrorism. By any definition, any side can be qualified as a terrorist.
Hezbollah and Hamas, organizations that have been enlisted as terrorist organizations in Canada, U.S., Israel and a few other countries, are organizations that also talk about justice and in fact also provide social services, like the American government, to their people. They are fully functioning organizations that have popular backing from their people, something that even the Americans can't claim--George W. Bush's support seems to be only in the decline and for him to claim popular support and backing would be a complete exaggeration of the true reality.
A more development-oriented perspective is how the U.S. has enough food to feed the whole world, but it doesn't. While people spend away in the West, there are people simultaneoulsy dying in Africa and Asia of malnutrition and poverty. This, these people view as injustice. And when countries as powerful as the U.S. engage in their political affairs, when they never bothered to care for them before, and end up making a situation that is bad into worse, it has often led to anger and dissatisfaction and hostile feelings towards the entire West, predominantly the U.S. For these people who are left at the peripheries of the world, in the north-south divide, they feel the West is the prime contributor to injustice, and at times, many would feel the urge to defend themselves from its vice and may go as far as using violent means to achieve their goal, to create change or to make a point. It is now time that the West understand that regardless of the questionable tactics that these terrorist organizations deploy, it cannot ignore these organizations forever. The U.S. has to listen more than react. Maybe if the U.S. forgave developing countries' debts, or gave them food aid or did not get involved in their internal problems so much, these problems wouldn't exist. Some would question why should the U.S. help when it is disliked so much and criticized so much? Well, reality is that nothing comes for free, and power comes with responsibility. As the ultimate power of the world, it cannot endlessly consume and let others suffer. It cannot unconditionally back governments for its own strategic interests. It must understand that some of these alleged 'terrorists' may actually have some legitimate grievances, such as the Tamils do in Sri Lanka and the Palestinians in Israel. No nation that is oppressed can truthfully be terrorists and even the U.S. and its top policy makers know this. Someone who is oppressed will react, one day or the other, and now is the time to address these grievances.
The fact is that both sides claim they are just, they want justice, freedom and liberty for their people, but that however, is not being achieved. The U.S. the undeniable 'hyper-power' of the world has complete control over the popular perception of the world, and has a stronghold on the economy of the world as well. It cannot relentlessly hope to consume forever without giving back and it cannot hope for its rhetorical and media monopoly to go on forever either. It will at sometime have to come to terms with the causes of violence and the reasons for the creation of these organizations, rather than reacting to them. The U.S. must try to find a viable solution to achieve peace and stability in the world, especially if it wishes to enjoy peace while it remains the one and only power on earth.
