Reign of terror

The real threat of terrorism is that it will change who we are

When the United States launched cruise missiles at targets in Sudan and Afghanistan last week, most Americans felt apprehension, not relief. Osama bin Laden, the man thought to be behind the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, had declared a holy war on America (and Americans). He has many millions at his disposal, and his stated goal is maximal: to destroy the "Great Satan." As the Phoenix went to press, details were emerging about a fatal bombing, possibly retaliatory, in a Planet Hollywood restaurant in South Africa. The atmosphere is that of a long war, just beginning.

Yet as the nation grapples with how best to respond to this dangerous new world, it is essential to remember that terrorism doesn't just threaten lives. It also threatens liberty.

The risk to American lives is certainly real and growing. Technological advances are bringing the tools of mass destruction closer and closer to the hands of zealots and madmen. Deadly chemicals (such as nerve gas) and biological agents (such as anthrax) are disturbingly easy to produce, and the equipment needed to turn them into weapons is becoming more and more accessible. Nuclear know-how continues its gradual diffusion. Even ballistic-missile technology, which could give rogue nations the ability to target the American heartland, is spreading.

Indeed, terrorists have already used a weapon of mass destruction in an attack. The 1995 nerve gas attack in the Tokyo subway killed 12 and injured thousands. If the assault had not been badly botched, many more would have been killed.

Clearly we need to respond. Clearly we need to rethink how to prevent more attacks and how to prepare for the consequences should prevention fail.

But in reacting, we must not hand victory to the terrorists. "Counterterrorism" can easily become a rationale for restricting our freedoms as citizens. One needn't be a believer in government conspiracies to take this threat seriously: just look to our own past. During World War II, Japanese-Americans were rounded up and placed in detention camps, their race their only "crime." During the deepest freeze of the Cold War, Senator Joseph McCarthy spearheaded a ruinous search for reds in our midst. The Reagan administration sent agents to infiltrate organizations that opposed American policy in Central America. In each case, the threat of terrorism was used to undermine our democratic institutions.

There is a more subtle danger. After the bombing of the Oklahoma federal building, suspicious eyes were turned on Arab-Americans everywhere. (The plot of a controversial new movie, Siege, takes this theme to the extreme: after a series of bombings in New York City, Arab-Americans are rounded up en masse.) The hatred that moves terrorists to kill is highly infectious.

The question before the nation, then, is not simply how to respond to the specter of terrorism. It is how to best to balance two fundamental, and often opposing, needs -- security and liberty.

Perhaps the most poignant image of the week was that of the Washington Monument. All around, construction workers were lowering pale concrete barriers into place. The symbolism was obvious to anyone who saw it: an America that, even in its capital, has suddenly become vulnerable. But the picture also stood as a reminder of what we must not become: paranoid, closed-in -- defeated.

What do you think? Send an e-mail to letters[a]phx.com.