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A Vietnam Vet Asks: What is the Answer to Terrorism?

I sit and wonder at the fact that the terrorists had such a deep and intense hatred toward us as a nation that they spent literally years training and preparing for this brutal attack. My first thought was that it came out of the blue. They struck first! We are justified in striking back. But after thinking about it, it seems that this attack was the result of some long-standing wounds that these people believe we inflicted on them. The historians can probably spell it out for us, showing where we, as a nation, took actions that are seen by someone over there as monstrous and evil.

In general, we do not feel comfortable killing another child of God. We must first become clear that the one who is to blame is somehow less than human. We call them EVIL. Only then can we go forward to administer our final justice.

We conveniently forget what we have done in the past that may have been seen by them as evil. We, as average American citizens, may not even be aware of what might have been done in our name. We can look back to the Gulf War and beyond.

What I do understand is that we seem to be rushing toward vengeance as a response to the recent tragedies. What will be the result of that lethal reprisal? Will it convince the group who made the initial attack that they should never do so again? Is it possible that we will cause “collateral damage” in the deaths of innocent citizens? And is it not likely that the friends and relatives of those innocents will then have cause to hate us and want their own revenge?

Is our revenge likely to act in the same way such violence does in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda, and the Middle East? Has any violent retaliation in those places solved the problem and brought peace, understanding, and brotherhood?

I am convinced that we will never stop terrorism through military means. In spite of our spending billions more than any other country on fighter planes, bombers, battleships, submarines, guns, and missiles, we are helpless to stop a few determined individuals who wish to perform acts of terrorism.

So what is the answer to terrorism? Is it possible that we ask of ourselves that which we have been asking of the people of Northern Ireland and other such conflicts? We want them to put down their guns and cease the violence. We want them to come to a table with mediators and try to understand how each has wounded the other, how the cycle of violence will only feed the fire of more pain and suffering. This is a tall order. Who can actually expect us to conquer our anger at a time like this?

Perhaps it is not realistic to ask this of ourselves. It would mean that we look into our own hearts and see that we may bear some of the blame for the current condition. How could we possibly survive the pain and guilt of such a difficult truth? The easier alternative is to put all of the blame outside of ourselves—put it on “the other,” label them evil, and continue the killing.

Don Graham, Psychological Counseling and Wellness Center director and Vietnam veteran