The Plague of Terrorism

Editor's Note: This will introduce Judson Cox, a new writer for ChronWatch. Jud is a young communications major at Liberty College in North Carolina, who aspires to be a journalist and columnist. He has a mature perspective on politics, economics, and culture, and his writing often displays a strong sense of humor.

When President Bush declared that the nations of the world were ''either for us or against us'' in the War on Terror, the response was a world wide gasp. The increasingly socialist nations of Europe have reduced military funding in favor of social programs. This has led to reliance on the United Nations for protection, which necessitates compromise with nations like Libya, Syria, and Iran--sponsors of terror. Our President recognized the danger of nations bent on propagating terrorism. Along with a ''coalition of the willing,'' not under U.N. auspices, he set about overturning state sponsors of terrorism, and freeing millions.

The non-willing nations of Europe, and the opposition party at home, were outraged. The fruits of their inaction and compromise have been exposed in terrorist bombings, mass graves, prisons full of children, and torture chambers. Chief among the shrill shibboleths of the left are the following arguments:

**This is destabilizing unilateralism; without the United Nations, this is an illegitimate war.

**Terrorist regimes should be negotiated with and given what they want, then they will stop the terrorists within their borders.

The bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Iraq disproves the first argument. Those who profess this position believe that if the United Nations had approved this action, war would have been avoided. They see the U.N. as a force for good will and peace in the world with the moral authority to dictate to dictators. This terrorist attack was against humanitarian workers attempting to rebuild and feed Iraq, not soldiers. The United Nations distanced itself from the American led coalition by refusing the protection of our soldiers. There is no convoluted explanation of imperialism in this instance; these people were killed by blood thirsty terrorists who will strike at any target.

Iraq is a key battlefield in the War On Terror. Hussein harbored Al Queda training camps in Iraq, he gave generously to terrorist groups, and gave tens of thousands of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers. According to Pentagon officials, terrorists are flooding into Iraq across the borders of Syria and Iran. The terrorists that would attack America, are facing our soldiers in Iraq. U.S. casualties are troubling, but our soldiers who have died made the ultimate sacrifice to protect us from terrorist. As for oil, our forces are working to open the pipelines and allow Iraq's natural resources to be used for the benefit of the Iraqi people. Terrorists are attempting to undermine this effort. If this is a ''war for oil,'' it is not for the benefit of America. However, in the wake of the bombing of the U.N. headquarters, France intimated that it would only send troops to Iraq if the country's oil contracts were restored. These contracts gave inexpensive oil to France, at the expense of the Iraqi people.

The recent bombing in Israel proves that terrorists cannot be negotiated with. Israel has done everything possible to stop the violence, even conceding a Palestinian state if the Palestinians would repudiate terrorism. Israel released Palestinian prisoners, withdrew from Palestinian neighborhoods and ignored several terrorist attacks in hopes that the Palestinians would make good on their promise of a cease fire. The bus bombing murdered innocent civilians returning from a religious service. The street was filled with blood and body parts. Dead children lay strewn about like rag dolls. Israel responded with the assassination of a Hamas terrorist when the Palestinian Prime Minister refused to act. For terrorists, killing innocents is acceptable, killing terrorists is verboten.

The nations of the world, and all Americans, must recognize terrorism as evil. Terrorists cannot be negotiated with, cannot be dissuaded by diplomacy, and care nothing for even the people they claim to represent. Terrorists are not freedom fighters or misguided idealists. People who commit such atrocities are devoid of humanity. They repudiate the attributes that separate man from animal. They are devoid of conscience, compassion, and even reason. They are rabid dogs biting even the hand that feeds them. More accurately, they are like the rats that spread the bubonic plague throughout Europe, killing millions. Like rats, they must be exterminated before they kill us all.

Pretty strong for a new young writer, but I agree with him. In retrospect, I have concluded that all the dance around the May poll at the UN was simply to isolate the U.S. and discredit Bush, rather than some clandestine attempt to hide French-German-Russian involvement there. They had to know that Bush was going to go in with or without them so they set the table for the aftermath. They hoped that would be the isolation of the U.S. from the rest of the world. As usual, they misunderestimated Dubya. They instead isolated themselves.

Our local anti-U.S. crowd, the media and the Democrats, are still trying to make that play work but in the process are isolating themselves, too. Things may work out for the better even yet.

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