Many Americans ask themselves if it is worth retaliating for 189 American deaths that happened twelve years ago. In trying to answer this question, they should remember that the bombing of Pan Am 103 was not an isolated act, but one among many other terrorist attacks on American lives perpetrated in the last decades. To let Kadafi and his men escape is to tell the terrorists of the world that they can get away with murder if they don't kill too many people and if they hide long enough. If past U.S. administrations had the excuse of lacking the legitimacy of a court of law pointing to Libya, the new administration has nothing to hide behind but its own unwillingness to act. Shamefully, America's meek reaction to the killing of its citizens has been limited to imposing economic sanctions on Libya.
Justice demands much more than apologies and dollars.
The US should take the opportunity afforded by the Netherlands' verdict to make a fundamental shift in its foreign policy, and commit to never again let terrorist acts go unpunished. America should make its new policy effective now, by first retaliating against Libya, and then against every other known terrorism sponsor, such as Afghanistan, which harbors Osama Bin Laden, the Saudi responsible for the 1998 American Embassy bombing in Kenya. Americans would then learn that they could count on their government to protect them from terrorism, and the world terrorists would learn that there is nowhere on earth to hide if they attack America. Ltd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.