Ensuring Our National Security

As the fires are finally extinguished and the survivors are pulled from the ash piles where the World Trade Center once stood, we must confront the terrible reality that an act of war has been committed on American soil. When the last comparable atrocity came screaming out of the sky over Pearl Harbor, the United States responded with a political and military campaign that resulted in nothing less than the destruction of the system that produced the attack. Surely a response of equal gravity is needed today: we must combat the threat of terrorism and do whatever is necessary to safeguard the security of the territorial United States.

But while in 1941 the adversary was unmistakable, the identity of our greatest enemy today is unclear. We simply do not know whether the author of Tuesday’s horror was a single terrorist organization, a network of groups, one or more enemy states or a sinister coalition of the above.

Though the emotions provoked by this week’s attacks are raw, there is great danger in mounting a rash strike against the wrong target purely to satisfy a desire for quick retribution. Retribution is, no doubt, in order. But lobbing a few ineffectual cruise missiles at suspected terrorist compounds—as we did following the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa—will do little to promote our long-term security. If anything, such a policy could incite further violence against the United States.

Instead, we must devote whatever resources are necessary to pinpointing the origins of terrorist activity. We must strengthen the training and manpower of our nation’s intelligence forces. We must work closely with our allies to build an intelligence network. And once we have fully understood the nature of this week’s attacks, we must carry the battle to where our enemies lie.

This mission will require serious rethinking of our policy towards states in which terrorists are known to operate—states that, in more peaceful times, the United States has often ignored. President George W. Bush has said that we will make no distinction between terrorists and those who harbor them. Whenever the hosts of the evil men who plot against us support their efforts, this policy is certainly appropriate. But we must also recognize that different situations will require different responses—terrorists may operate within failed states or strong states, enemies or allies, and if we are to successfully prosecute our campaign against terror, we must look beyond the naiveté of single-strategy approaches.

We must also realize that it is impractical and likely impossible for us to destroy international terrorism networks alone. We must therefore cultivate support and seek assistance wherever we can, working closely with our allies abroad. Our aims will be most successfully accomplished if nations choose to drive out terrorism from their own land, and our most strenuous diplomacy should be employed in encouraging them to do so. But if we possess clear and irrefutable evidence, in our best judgment and in that of our allies, that a nation is sheltering those who have planned the terrorist attacks and who are now planning others, the use of allied military force is justified if necessary to protect U.S. soil.

The battle against terrorism may begin with the villains who brought down the World Trade Center and crippled the Pentagon, but it must not end there. Others would gladly appear to replace them, and the citizens of peaceful countries would feel no more secure. As so many world leaders have noted, this week’s attack was not merely an act of aggression against the United States, but against the free world. Once again, the duty to defend these freedoms has fallen squarely on our shoulders.