Terror! Terror! Terror! In the past five years terrorism of all sorts has gripped our nation, we sit on the edge of our seats expecting to see the next terror attack strike America. It has been five years since the September 11th attacks with no real solution to what polls show is American's greatest fear. The leftists are calling for a referendum on Iraq, and the rightists are calling for overwhelming homeland strength. Where Americans stand is somewhere lost in the mix of it all. There have been not one, but two great tragedies over this past half-decade, September 11th 2001 and its geopolitical implications. On September 12th, America had the world behind her with global citizens holding vigils around the globe; even in Iran, a far cry from the gatherings we see on the news today, especially in the Middle East.
The problem exists within human nature itself, I myself supported the war in Iraq at the idea's birth, we deserved justice, but we were duped by our leaders, it was not exacted with any sort of justice at heart. It used to be that an American president walked on water, he was someone to put your trust in, who would act in moderation and with the utmost consideration. What we see today is a lack of both. Terrorism is a tool, a political tool used by an organization with a deliberate cause, not with just chaos in mind, and the terrorists have accomplished just that. With the world supporting us in our quest against terror we blew it, the problem is that its difficult to see Iraq in a different light than the war on terror. By attacking Iraq we fell right into their trap, we've destabilized the Middle East and left ourselves open to greater terror plots, in addition to those being run by Osama Bin-laden out of Afghanistan. Moreover, we have put ourselves in an even more precarious position to let the orange terror threat-Fox news-knee jerk response affect our politics. Instead of electing leaders with an intellectual and savvy plan to thwart terrorism, we stand to allow our fear dominate our next major political elections.
On NPR a few weeks ago I heard one analyst say, "It used to be said that military could not fix political problems, now it seems [our leaders believe] that politics cannot solve military conflicts," and instead we must rely on military force. This Fall please consider where using military force has gotten us, and remember that hardline-security and military oriented leaders represent our enemies, not the United States, and this militaristic way is not the true and clever way to disarm the world.

-Christopher P. Peters -