We must retaliate

Rome is burning and the barbarians are knocking at the gate — but this time Rome is New York, and the barbarians are the terrorists who committed murderous, unspeakable iconoclasm against holy symbols of America's greatness on Sept. 11.

There is little doubt as to the symbolism of the terrorists' targets. New York and the World Trade Center are pre-eminent symbols of American capitalism and opportunity — and stark reminders to backward, tyrannical nations of the world of what they choose not to achieve. The Pentagon is an unmistakable symbol of America's power to defend its values on an international scale — a power resented by those whose nefarious plans it frustrates.

Sadly, America has invited these barbarians to its gates. The list of our responses to recent terrorist acts — the bombings of the TWA flight over Lockerbie, of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, of the east African embassies, and the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole — reads like a litany of appeasement to terrorists around the world. For too many years, our leaders have turned the other cheek: They have responded with pathetically modest military force, benign judicial proceedings, or nothing at all. Shall we continue to fiddle?

In the days that will follow, there are sure to be calls from all quarters to "show restraint," to wait until we "determine the identity" of the perpetrators. We might not know the specific perpetrators of this particular crime, but we know of the terrorist groups who have supported actions against America in the past, and will continue to do so unless America takes a stand against terrorism now.

We also know that international terrorism cannot exist without the sanction, protection or support of hostile foreign governments, ideologically opposed to American ideals. We have known where these nests of terrorism have been for many years. We must now visit immediate, overwhelming military retaliation against them.

This is not an emotional overreaction. It is a sober recognition of the fact that terrorism — as with every other form of evil — thrives when its victims appease it. If we continue to turn the other cheek to injustice, we have conceded our enemy's right not only to dispose of our cheek, but of our life.

There are those at this very University who, still fresh from their adventures in Seattle or Genoa — or from quoting Noam Chomsky on Saturday morning radio shows —must be working hard to repress their glee over this blow to symbols of what they regard as the "hegemony" of global capitalism, or the "military-industrial complex," or American "imperialism." Their very predictable condemnations of this tragedy will ring hollow, however. Unlike the foreign governments making similar empty condemnations, they have not supported terrorists directly or materially. But they have lent moral aid and comfort to our enemies by their intellectual support for the same anti-capitalist, anti-freedom and anti-American ideas on which these terrorists feed. Now let them see what their ideas produce in the vast reality beyond the ivory tower.

If we are not to let the barbarians win, we must first recognize the priceless value of civilization. This is easy. Having the courage to fight for it is not. But it is courage we need immediately.

Ben Bayer, Rajshree Agarwal, Ben Bayer, Andrew Dalton, Jane Erickson, Karl Goetze, Pari Haridim, Chyanne Husar, Drew Johnston, Jeff Kramer, Keith Lockitch, Jeff Mayhugh, Anish Paul, Keith Schacht, Rebecca Stang, Ben Wilson, Matthew Woodruff, Nicole Presperin, Josh Auld, Kristina Janusz and Rommel Alvarez
members of the University community

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