THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE IMAGES are becoming maddeningly familiar and sickeningly repetitive. Blasted buildings, cafes, buses and railway cars. Bloodied corpses. Mangled survivors. Weeping loved ones. Bewildered children. The sounds too. Screaming sirens and wailing onlookers.
And our elected leaders? Are once more unanimously sternly condemning. Vowing yet again to root out and eradicate all terrorism and terrorists.
What else can they say? What else can they be expected to say?
If we continue to fight terrorism misguidedly with much bluff and more thunder. And especially if we listen to and, worse, believe the blathering talking heads after the recent Madrid atrocities.
But we'll have to make a seismic shift in thinking. As seismic as this: The "war" on drugs isn't working and never will be until we completely decriminalise all production, shipments, sales and consumption of all drugs including, but not restricted to, marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
So what's the secret weapon? What's as seismic in winning the "war" on terrorism as decriminalising "illegal substances" to win the drug war?
More conventional wisdom says poverty breeds terrorism. So, currently, in the face of that what do our otherwise wise leaders do? Crow about how they're "starving terrorists of their funds." But if the former is true the latter can only make things worse. And that's the seismic shift.
Instead of spending $500 billion on "conventional" weapons and troops and supporting services that proved totally useless against the 9/11 box cutter attack. And the $300 billion, or whatever, on secret intelligence that, as the CIA director himself confessed, "isn't a pure science and leaves much open to interpretation."
Pay the terrorists to not terrorise us. Handsomely. Reward them to stop!
Yes, you read this correctly. Use the limited unscientific intelligence we have to get in contact with all the senior top crack terrorists we know. And produce commercials, ads, flyers, emails and whatever to reach the ones we don't know. And offer them immense wealth beyond their wildest dreams.
In return for signing a sworn statement not to terrorise us they can have bags full of cash. No other questions asked and tax free. If they require it, a new identity and immersion in the Terrorist Protection Programme in a small town in New Mexico, too. Or to make them feel very much at home in Nevada near the biggest stockpiles of mass destruction known to humankind.
It may very well not be true that poverty breeds terrorism. But even if it isn't the opposite of poverty could go a long way to wiping it out.
I am, etc.,
DAVID MARSDEN
head-riter@asticles.com
Barbados W.I.
Via Go-Jamaica
