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The Prevention of Terrorism - Part One

Steven Barrie-Anthony

We should do our best militarily to root out and eliminate the existing terrorist cells, and also disrupt these eight variable if and when we can. 

We can interrupt milieu control by disseminating as much unbiased information as possible within Muslim nations.  (Air dropping short wave radios along with food, as has been proposed, is a step in the right direction.)

The dissemination of various (peaceful) interpretations of the Qur'an, as expressed by well-known scholars knowledgeable of both the Qur'an and of current Muslim social structure, would help open up a dialogue to interrupt mystical manipulation.  These efforts would contribute to the disproving of Bin Laden's sacred science.  (Once people are exposed to unbiased accounts of the world, to varying yet intelligent viewpoints, the unitary nature of the sacred science will tend to diminish in their minds.)

We should do our best to disrupt these, and the demand for purity as well.  The dispensing of existence, perhaps the most serious of the variables, should be treated as such. The best way to disrupt such an ideological spin is to show the terrorists who they're killing.  Bin Laden is surely beyond this, as were the terrorists who lived in our society for a year before making their move.

But there are thousands of Muslims whose identities are still forming, who must now decide whether to follow Bin Laden's rhetoric and "kill for God", or to deny Bin Laden's solution and find their own.  We should play into their ambivalence. 

We need to show them that the people who died didn't deserve to be killed.  Through whatever means necessary, we need to show them that the American people aren't evil, aren't lined up against them.

Just as journalists try to put a "human face" on tragedy so that the readership can empathize, we need to provide that same service abroad.  How much does it really affect you, deep inside, when you hear of a disaster in Africa or India?  It's hard to empathize without a human face.  That's the same situation for countless young people in Afghanistan, and in other Islamic nations.