Friday's announcement by British officials that they had foiled an alleged plot by terrorists to blow up several aircraft heading for the United States from the United Kingdom should renew security concerns for countries like Jamaica.

Importantly, too, it should as well as cause Washington and London to reflect on their approaches to some of the major issues which confront the international community, not least of which is the Arab/Israeli conflict, including Jerusalem's current war with the Hezbollah militia and the wider Palestinian question.

This newspaper is opposed to the use of terror to achieve political ends and in that regard unreservedly condemns those who so wantonly take, or attempt to take, innocent lives. This is a position clearly shared by most rational people, deeply exemplified by the outpouring of sorrow and support for the United States in the immediate aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, and the Pentagon.

There is a certain indecency about terror, which we all abhor. Terror is indiscriminate. It abhors, and rejects, innocence.

Which is why the new global terror strategies ought to be of such concern for economically and technologically weak states like our own.

The point is that Jamaica and other countries in the Caribbean host substantial U.S., British and other Western interests. Their companies have billions of dollars of investments in plant and facilities in the region. Each year millions of Americans and tourists, travelling by aircraft and cruise ships, vacation in the region. One of the world's busiest shipping lanes traverses the Caribbean Sea.

These things potentially place us in the direct line of fire of international terrorists, without the resources to maintain a robust system of deterrence. We are relatively soft targets for those who would strike.

In that regard, it is critical that Jamaica and its partners in the Caribbean Community accelerate their development of a joint security strategy, moving beyond the focus on next year's Cricket World Cup, which is what seems to be mostly exercising the minds of CARICOM ministers. We feel that there is a need for an CARICOM intelligence organisation, with independent operational capacities in addition to a coordinating role among existing national agencies .

We believe too that Jamaica should become part of an expanded and reorganised regional security system, which, under its existing structure, has served its members, Barbados and the OECS states, reasonably well. A standing, rapid-deployment force, under a single, rotating command, would make sense, giving the region some capacity to respond to emergencies.

But even as we do these things and work with our British and American partners, we must be frank about their overly muscular, myopic and unbalanced posture, particularly in the the Middle East, which helps to give succour to the international terrorists.

The apparent green light given by President Bush and Prime Minister Blair for Israel to maintain its destruction of Lebanon, ostensibly to dismantle Hezbollah, breeds resentment and anger and fuels radicalism. Moreover, those who may have other motives, find the Palestinian issue and the lack of an even-handed approach to this problem in Washington and London a convenient rallying point. Neither does it help when a war is launched and the basis for the war is deeply suspect.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.