New legislation also threatens to turn foreign policy critics into criminals. Anyone supporting groups or countries the Secretary of State deems terrorist could be arrested and charged. The danger of this anti-terrorist mania is that the cure is worse than the disease. Our own rights of political dissent will be eroded by adopting zealous measures to fight a straw man created in the minds of cold-war propagandists. Of course real terrorism does exist.
Violence is commonplace in today s political life.
And that makes the problem all the more complicated. Killing or kidnapping innocent civilians to advance a political goal is morally indefensible. Governments simply increase counter-terror tactics and harden their attitude to change. And whatever political support groups like the Palestinians or the Northern Irish Catholics have is inevitably sullied by the brutal crimes of those terrorists who act in their name. Terrorism is not a solution to legitimate political demands.