volume 7 Turkeys issues December 2004

What Feeds Global Terror and What May Eradicate It in the Long Term?

 M. Mustafa Erdogdu

Marmara University, Ressam Namik Ismail Sk. No: 1, 34590 Bahcelievler, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract

The response of the US to the atrocity of September 11 was immediate, but did not come close to eradicating global terror. The overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq has neither crushed Al-Qai'da nor deterred terrorists from acting again in similar fashion elsewhere in the globe. It seems that the US is approaching the problem from the wrong end and responding not with wisdom but reflex. What the US has done, so far, is to fight the symptoms of global terror, but not its underlying reasons. The US has apparently diagnosed the problem wrongly and been using unsuitable means to solve it. What the US does is not much different from using a hammer to save the patient from a virus. This approach is likely to create more problems, rather than winning hearts and minds, which is crucial for curing this type of illness. Unless we understand the reasons and motivations of people who are prepared to transform themselves into living missiles, we are unlikely to find the right response to reduce the possibility that such acts will occur again. Thus, this paper first examines underlying reasons and motivations of suicide bombers and the environment that breeds such terror, and then develops long-term cures to solve this global problem.

full text pdf file