Malcolm, we don't disagree on the problem or the danger, only the solution. Forgetting about ethics and international law entirely, then depending on the time frame you are looking at, different measure make sense. We could destroy the infrastructure in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and others. We have that capacity and if we did that and imposed restrictions on travel, we would probably be much safer than we are now over the short run. I think we don't want to go where that would lead us over the longer run.
In the long run it is only with the help and cooperation of the people and governments where these radicals are spawned that we can hope to control terrorism and avoid the catastrophic acts of terror which can occur in today's high tech world. We will get that cooperation when we have created a world and Middle Eastern view that the bad guys are the terrorists, not us, and that their acts do not benefit the countries or religion that they purport to champion.
That's the reason that moral relativism, as you put it, is an important ingredient of any long term fix, along with selected strikes at non-innocent targets and effective economic and political measures. Ed |
