Terrorism

TERRORISM IS NOT a disease, it is a symptom. The real illness is a political one, and the United States' decision to retaliate against this spreading germ through the use of missiles is akin to using a bomb against a virus. At best, you might wipe out a few of those carrying the sickness. At worst, you risk spreading the disease further, infecting more people than if the virus had been allowed to follow its own course.A diplomatic approach will prove to be the only cure for the struggles in the Middle East, which are the underlying causes of the recent terrorist attacks.

Washington. -- The heinous murders of innocent people in that grisly Oklahoma City bombing have understandably provoked cries for drastic actions to prevent such an event in the future.We hear calls to ''unleash'' the FBI at home and the CIA abroad, and to wipe out all restraints regarding electronic surveillance, wiretapping and the infiltration of groups -- and individuals -- on someone's list of ''possible terrorists.''As President Clinton and others denounce the talk-show purveyors of verbal terrorism and the politicians who inflame borderline psychopaths, we hear talk of a law to silence them.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - In 1945, the Allies committed themselves at Yalta to the destruction of Nazism and German militarism. The implication of the decision was that Nazism was to be eradicated, not merely contained. The Allies did not stop their attacks once the German army was driven out of France and the Soviet Union, or once attacks on London stopped. Nazi Germany was attacked mercilessly and, consequently, Nazism has never again emerged as a potent force to threaten freedom. World leaders today must adopt the same resolute and uncompromising stance in the war against terrorism.

The trouble plaguing the investigation into the terrorist bombing of a commuter train under the River Seine in Paris on Tuesday is that there are too many suspects.France in recent decades has witnessed terrorism against Armenians, Jews, Iranian dissidents, Turkish dissidents, Syrian dissidents, leading French industrialists and France itself. Suspects have included Hezbollah, several governments, French anarchists. The most recent terrorism has been by Algerian extremists, some of it against each other.

THE ACTING CHIEF of the Food and Drug Administration made headlines last week when he said his primary concern about allowing Americans to reimport U.S.-made medicines from Canada is tampering by terrorists. At first, Lester M. Crawford's comment sounded like a particularly lame excuse by the Bush administration to continue protecting the interests of its deep-pocketed friends in the pharmaceutical industry. Drugmakers hate the idea of Americans taking advantage of discounts the Canadian government negotiates for its citizens.

PORTSTEWART, Northern Ireland - British politicians and much of the media in the United Kingdom are engaged in a familiar Western practice following a terrorist attack. They think they can explain it using Western standards. Many Americans blamed the race riots of the 1960s on racism and unemployment, which contributed to hopelessness they said only equality and prosperity could solve. That most unemployed blacks did not riot escaped the mainly white sociologists and commentators who desired a "nonjudgmental" explanation for lawless behavior.

WASHINGTON -- Where there's a terrorist, there's a business opportunity. If you're new to that concept, no worries. There's still plenty of money to be made in the homeland security industry. You've heard of improvised explosive devices - those nasty roadside bombs that have killed too many American sons and daughters. Well, here's worse news (or maybe good news for your investment portfolio): IEDs may be coming to America. And this means that counter-IED technology will be the newest market segment in homeland security.

ARLINGTON, Va. - The media are full of "news analyses" that say President Bush has lost his edge in the war on terrorism. They suggest he should not have seen the world in black and white following Sept. 11 but in the gray and pastels in which analysts view most things. While some of these pundits view their favored issues in black and white, when it comes to war, most are still wearing rose-colored glasses and singing "Blowin' in the Wind." Some conservatives agree that Mr. Bush is losing his edge - but for the opposite reason.

WASHINGTON -- War and terrorism will take center stage in Congress next week, as both chambers vote on an emergency military spending bill and the House devotes a day to debating a resolution on Iraq and terrorism. House Republican leaders say the decision to focus on the conflict in Iraq and the terrorism issue was made long ago. But GOP officials concede that the killing of Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by a U.S. air strike last week was fortuitous, making it easier for the Republicans to defend the administration's policies.

Whoever bombed the World Trade Center in New York did not do so because he was a fundamentalist Muslim, but because he was a terrorist. His motives were not religious but political, even if he may deny the distinction. The millions of Muslims in this country did not do it. The hundreds of thousands who might describe themselves as fundamentalist Muslims did not do it. A handful of people who use terror for political ends, and who may be Muslims, did do it.The search for the few who are guilty should not spread hate or fear on the many who are innocent.