The need for a global campaign against terrorism

Nearly a week ago, the images from Mumbai of nearly a dozen terrorists crippling a major city was broadcast all over the screens worldwide. Bodies lay in the streets, gunmen walking amongst them spraying police with bullets. The typical Hollywood mass murder attack finally happened. With 163 people dead, an investigation hopes to uncover what exactly went wrong to allow such an attack.


As we look to the future on how to confront the threat of terrorism, the Mumbai attacks set an example of how vulnerable the world still to such violence. While Western countries have taken the lead to address this problem, many developing countries - such as India - refuse to take the role seriously. Consider that the anti-terror squads, the elite groups meant to fight off the attackers, were armed with World War One rifles and defective bulletproof vests. This clearly begs the question as to how much funding India provides its reactionary response to terrorism that clearly failed that day.


Where was the flow of Western money going to for anti-terror training? U.S. forces are training Pakistan's Frontier Corps, which have accomplished nothing in the tribal regions of the country. In August, the EU announced that over the next three years it would increase its economic aid for the lawless Northwest Frontier Province to $63 million for education, trade, and farming projects. This is not an answer to fight terrorism. Sinking money into countries that shy away from confronting terrorists in their borders deserve no aid.


Making a connection between poverty and terrorism is not a factual statement by any means. As one expert I once heard say, "When was the last time you heard of a suicide bombing in Haiti?" This is a simple excuse to allow countries to do what they do to other problems, and try to fix everything with money. What really exists is a war of ideals. For too long, the voices of moderate Muslims have been silenced in their home countries while the West has sat idle.


How come we are behind the curve in fighting terrorism. We still see it as a crime, something that can be dealt with in our courts. It is far bigger than that. Dr. Yonah Alexander, who has authored nearly 90 books on security issues, said:

"This is true especially after 9-11; terrorism was labeled as a threat of war. I'd like to remind all of us that in our lifetime, or at least in my lifetime, we dealt with the Cold War, and since 1979 we've dealt with a "war" with Iran, and the third war is the "war" with jihadism and extremism, personified by the "war" with Bin Ladin."

The war on terrorism is a war, despite being labeled as a "bumper sticker war" by some. As some lawmakers ponder how far is too far in this war, we are losing the fight of winning hearts and minds. It is time to specifically target the propaganda stream from terrorist outfits, filled with the hatred for anything deemed un-Islamic. As Saudi Arabia uses textbooks in the Islamic Saudi Academy in Virginia that promotes jihad and hatred, the State Department does nothing. The war on terrorism is bigger than a battlefield in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is something that is spread through paranoia and intolerance by Islamic radicals.


The fight against terrorism is one that encompasses numerous aspects and requires the assistance of the international community. No one country should lead the way, and while the United States took the lead after the September 11 attacks, it is time for organizations to lead the way. This is not just the U.S. response to those attacks, but is the world's voice that it wants to overcome the social fears spewed by radicals. Through a global referendum that addresses the aspects that promote terror and a pledge to confront them, we can make the operations and ability to create new terrorists a more difficult process for those groups.