I am appalled by the actions of the Time For Peace group. Their assertion that we should look at retaliation as a last resort to terrorism is ignorant.

There is no peaceful solution to terrorism. Terrorists make demands. We either give in to those demands or we don’t. If we give in to those demands, we invite more terrorism.

It’s like handing your lunch money over to the school bully. If we respond to terrorism by seeking it out and destroying it at its roots, we will not be terrorized any more.

The bully doesn’t pick on you if you beat him up.

However, this isn’t what Time For Peace suggests. They suggest that we find alternatives. They suggest that we “flood countries with resources.”

How does this deter terrorism? How does this make Americans feel safe?

I don’t believe it does. Moreover, I think such a tactic would encourage more attacks. We would effectually be paying them for bombing us.

Time For Peace suggests that we isolate Osama bin Laden as a fanatic. I say too late.

He is a fanatic to his people. He is a fanatic to them the way that Martin Luther King Jr. was a fanatic to us all those years ago. He is a fanatic that is loved and revered by his people. He preaches the old ways. He carries a book of God. He talks about how America is a threat to their way of life.

Our clothes, our religions, and even our equal rights are a threat to their way of life. We can no more change the way his people feel about him than we can change the way we feel about MLK.

The suggestions made by Time For Peace do not work. We have tried peace. We tried peace when Osama bin Laden bombed the World Trade Center in 1993. We had peace talks and gave countries resources. In return, Osama bin Laden bombed the World Trade Center again.

That day, peace became a thing of the past. This is a time for violence.

Malik Toms

Graduate Student

Creative Writing and Literature