September 11, Crisis Resolution

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Crown Prince Abdullah's Peace Proposal and the War on Terrorism

Dennis J. D. Sandole
ICAR Professor

There are symptoms of problems and there are underlying causes and conditions of problems. Thus far, the U.S. "War on Terrorism" has been dealing with symptoms -- going after the people (e.g., Osama bin Laden) who have decided to commit acts of violence against the U.S.

While this is important, as there is no reason (short of pacifism) to offer oneself unopposed as a target to those who would want to kill us, to do so without attacking the deep-rooted causes of the problems is to ensure that there will always be symptoms that we have to deal with.

Case in point: News reports of U.S. Special Forces spreading around the globe into the Philippines, Yemen, and now the Soviet successor state of Georgia, are juxtaposed to reports and photographs of U.S.-equipped Israeli forces conducting military operations against captive Palestinian towns, villages, and refugee camps in a manner reminiscent of Serb forces conducting attacks on Bosnian and Kosovar Albanian Muslims a few years ago.

Given that those who want to kill us use as part of their motivation U.S. policy toward the Middle East, shouldn't the U.S. "War on Terrorism" also be targeting the underlying causes and conditions of that protracted conflict as well?

Perhaps Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah's recent proposal for peace in the Middle East (see Washington Post, 2 March 2002, p. A16) will provide the necessary opportunity to reframe the "War on Terrorism" from a solely military and law enforcement campaign to a comprehensive vision that includes dealing with the sources (no matter how far removed) as well as the manifestations of terrorism.