SLOGANS AND DEFINITIONS

Submitted by DAVID M. DASTYCH (Poland), Jun 16, 2002 at 16:23

Dear Sirs,
I received the transcript of the discussion this morning (Sunday, June 16) and studied it with utmost interest. First, it was an academic discussion between three scholars, who know the subject ("Radical Islamism") very well. But the general public, in America and elsewhere, has no such knowledge. When people hear about a "War on terror" from their President, they understand it literally: as a war on such people like the perpetrators of September 11."The war on terror" is a political slogan.

"The war agaist radical Islamists" is the definition of the enemy. But it isn't the full definition of the enemy, as the enemy of the USA and of the West, even of the rest of the rational and moderate World are "THE TERRORISTS AND THE TERRORIST STATES".

Let me explain my point of view more in detail: (1) the people who transform a personal faith into a radical utopian ideology [I refer here to a very good definition by Dr.Pipes] are not only the radical Islamists, there are more of them in this World (The Catholic IRA, the fanatic Hindu organizations etc.); (2) there are other terrorists, who are not religiously motivated but act as the radical Islamists (Palestinian leftists and nationalists, for example); (3) there are terrorists who join the radical movements for personal reasons [to kill people, to earn money, to live high] - all these categories of the terrorists are our enemies, the enemies of the USA as well as of all civilized people in the World. They threaten the base of our civilization and must be fought against at all means.

The most dangerous enemies, however, are the TERRORIST STATES. Not all of them are Islamist (what about North Korea!), not necessarily they must form a coalition but they are a double threat to the World: (1) they practice a totalitarian ideology, religious or not, (2) they are the most active sponsors of the terrorist movements and organizations that usually are their "clients" (like the Hizbullah, a client of Iran). The terrorist, expansive, terrorism-sponsorint states (like Iraq and Iran in the first place) are the most dangerous enemies.

The relations between the terrorist ORGANIZATIONS and the terrorist STATES represent a character of a self-perpetuating vicious circle and these relations, indeed, contribute to the spread out of terrorism nowadays.

To end by a brief definition: the radical Islamists constitute a significant part of the enemy camp but the ENEMY is much more complex and more more powerful. The sooner we understand this problem, the better we will defend ourselves.
Thanks for reading my views. DAVID M. DASTYCH, Warsaw, Poland

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