“Another tragedy, with the United States to blame.” That was the voice of the Daily’s editors last Wednesday, commenting on an anti-U.S. terrorist attack in South Africa.

I had to read it twice; I didn’t believe it was real because I can’t imagine that the blame for the attack could lie with anyone other than the man who claimed responsibility for it — or, perhaps, with the organization for which he was working, Muslims Against Global Oppression.

According to the editors, the United States — the target of the attack, the “victim” — is to blame.

The editors would have me believe that defending our foreign embassies and the lives of the people in them is wrong.

It has something to do with our “giant capitalist thumbs,” they say.

It would be better, they imply, to let terrorists get away with murder.

If they’re afraid of punishing people because of a possible retaliation, we might as well dismiss the entire police force, too.

Then we won’t have to worry about retaliations of any sort — only the hordes of thugs that will appear in any anarchy.

The editors have a lot of sympathy for terrorists, but very little for the victims of terrorism.

This is because capitalism, and therefore the United States, is so obviously evil that it doesn’t require explanation.

The terrorists are fully moral people, open to reason, and eager to talk with us diplomatically.

Unfortunately, diplomacy won’t work. Trying to pacify aggressors didn’t work with Hitler, and it won’t work now.

Terrorists are not nice people —they’re raving lunatics with bombs, and they want to kill you.

You can’t “kill them with kindness,” but you can kill them with a cruise missile.

Retaliating against terrorists isn’t “sinking to their level” — it’s giving them the destruction they so zealously crave.

Terrorist strongholds and the governments that support them should be reduced to piles of radioactive slag.

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Kyle Markley

Junior

Computer science

Objectivists at ISU President