Connections

During World War II, Japanese pilots flew their planes into American ships. The pilots were called kamikazes, a word meaning divine wind, which originated when a terrible storm helped the Japanese defeat Genghis Khan in the 13th century. A kid during the war, I couldn't understand how people could sacrifice their lives willingly, for any cause.

Now suicide bombers have become almost commonplace. But while the kamikazes targeted the military, today's martyrs kill civilians as well as themselves. Sept. 11, 2001, was not the first suicide-bombing attack in this country, and many Americans, including me, fear it will not be the last.

Like the kamikazes, the young men and women who have strapped explosives to their bodies and detonated them in public places had religion on their side and the hysteria of war. But in the Middle East the hatred shown for Israel and by the insurgents in Iraq for the United States has more than religion at its core.

The rebels are damn mad, and they're not going to take it anymore. Religious Islamic extremists may act to rid their part of the world of Western influence. Palestinian militants are inflamed by second-class citizenship and the very power of the Israeli Army, which inevitably takes a deadly toll on families and children. Abject poverty in the face of great wealth is not acceptable. Is it a surprise that many of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, a repressive country ruled by an inordinately rich royal family?

In our new world, information flows almost instantly. People and nations want and deserve home rule and a fair shake at a decent life.

The horrendous deaths of hundreds of innocents in southern Russia last week brought the number of people who have died in that country as a result of suicide attacks up to about 1,000. Because so many of the dead were children, the enormity of the crime was shocking. But you do not have to add up the numbers to recognize a crime against humanity.

Some say we are engaged in World War III. Those who plan to vote for George W. Bush agree with him that the United States can do no wrong and must expend its wealth to fight terrorism with all the manpower and firepower necessary. They are willing to concede that the deaths of civilian "collaterals" is a costly price, but they insist the only way to win this war is by force.

I do not agree. Calling the martyrdom and terrorism taking place around the globe World War III may well be a self-fulfilling prophesy, and part of the problem. I believe that the 21st century has brought us revolution, one that we will take a lot of time and hindsight to fully understand. No matter how hard we hit back at those who would bring down the United States, I do not believe this revolution will be quelled by military means.

A Marshall Plan to promote the welfare of the disenfranchised would, in my opinion, be more to the point. This planet has the resources to support every human being on it, to allow every ethnic and religious group to have the wealth and freedom to live as they like. I don't think we will see that in my lifetime.

Helen S. Rattray