In the matter of stopping terrorism, former U.S. Sen. Paul Simon’s honest and thoughtful “Increasing defense spending isn’t America’s cure-all” (Commentary, Feb. 12) says it all.
Let us acknowledge terrorism for what it is: a horrendous disease.
How does a skilled doctor deal with such a disease?
He seeks out the cause and treats its effect and its prevention in the future.
Simon quotes Secretary of State Colin Powell, who said we cannot eliminate terrorism around the Earth unless we deal with “areas of poverty, despair and hopelessness.”
Unfortunately Powell’s prescription does not match his administration’s approach, nor his own for that matter.
The quack doctor, treating a cancer patient, suggests a surefire pill (brand name: Bomb).
And if the first doesn’t do the trick, keep on popping.
Simon, in the fashion of an honest doctor, suggests skilled surgery and, most important, preventive medicine along the lines of the Marshall Plan.
It worked well during the post-World War II period.
Why shouldn’t it now?
Some time ago, Albert Einstein observed that, since the day the atom was split, the whole world has changed except for one thing: the way we think.
We must think anew, he implied, or we will have succeeded in bombing ourselves–as well as the rest of our species–back into the Stone Age.
Martin Luther King said the same thing in his own way:
“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
