Source: WSJ
7-12-05
Mr. Laqueur, a historian, is the author, inter alia, of "A History of Terrorism" (Little Brown, 1977).Whenever a major terrorist attack occurs, the politicians' speeches are predictable -- that the terrorists are barbarians, that they won't succeed in destroying our values and undermining our way of life. All this is correct and probably bears repeating, even though it's not exactly new and doesn't help us understand what happened and what may happen in the future.Also predictable at these times are the voices that admonish us to make a greater effort to understand the motives of the people who perpetrate these outrages and to enter a dialogue with them. In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, one commentator admonished us to understand that many people admire the terrorists -- which is perfectly correct, but not really a guide to action for the same can be said with regard to the late Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. The Guardian last week said that the war against terrorism will not be won until we better understand the Arabs and their grievances.
