The Right Response

The United States must respond to Tuesday’s evil not with one-time retaliatory actions but with a sustained, long-term crusade against terrorism. The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are indeed acts of war, despite the lack of a traditional enemy. Relying solely on law enforcement and the extradition and trial of a handful of the perpetrators of carnage will not suffice. Additional methods, some of them more harsh, are required to root out terrorism. Law enforcement has its place, but so do diplomacy, financial controls and military responses. The U.S. must coordinate all those elements, with the help of other nations.

The goal is to dismantle the ways and the means that support, train, equip and finance terrorism.

The necessary long battle against elusive foes without fixed battle lines can hardly avoid “collateral damage”: the deaths of innocents. And the deaths of Americans. Military action--in conjunction with diplomatic and financial enforcements--must be decisively measured for long-term effectiveness, not taken up precipitously for the satisfaction of quick revenge. This country must not use methods of terror, but it must go after those who would destroy our way of life.

The current fixation on Saudi-born terrorist Osama bin Laden may cloud our understanding of other terrorist networks and their possible role in sophisticated attacks against the United States. The links between them are poorly understood and infiltrating them is difficult. Many are composed of clans or members of extended families, unwilling to admit strangers. That is why Washington needs help from its allies, whose intelligence agencies may be more able to provide information.

Pakistan is the mentor of the Taliban organization that rules Afghanistan and which protects Bin Laden. Pakistan can help the U.S. determine where Bin Laden trains those he considers holy warriors.

Pakistan has helped the U.S. before, finding and deporting the leader of the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. That’s not enough now.

Pakistan needs to decide whether it wants to remain a friend of the U.S. or of terror. It must decide if letting Islamic militants bedevil its old foe, India, is worth the cost of being labeled a terrorist nation itself and sliding closer to bankruptcy once Washington withdraws its aid.

Tracing funds used in terrorist acts should get high priority, and when sources are found, host governments must be leaned on hard. Bin Laden, for instance, has both a personal fortune with Saudi roots, and Saudi supporters who are said to finance him.

Those tracking down the conspirators should not be required to produce proof of the sort needed to convict in a U.S. criminal trial. But they will need to show a solid body of evidence, enough to persuade both allies and Americans that the right people have been targeted. That may not be easy. And it may not happen as quickly as would be emotionally satisfying.

Military strikes in the past--against Libya in 1986 because of a bombing of a West Berlin disco frequented by U.S. military personnel, against Iraq in 1993 because of its threat to kill former President George H.W. Bush, and against Afghanistan and Sudan in 1998 to retaliate for attacks on U.S. embassies--did not cripple terrorist operations. The swift attacks may have satisfied a thirst for revenge, but in some cases they troubled allied nations and in all cases they were insufficient in destroying terrorist networks.

Other nations have succeeded in rooting out homegrown terrorists in recent years. Germany quelled the Baader-Meinhof gang, Italy the Red Brigades, Japan the Red Army. Terrorism may not be eradicated but it can be contained.

America may find itself in a state of quasi-war, not all-out assaults on sea, land and air with fixed regiments, but more limited reprisals. That will involve more than cruise missiles, fired with little or no danger to U.S. military personnel.

We support well-considered military retaliation as part of a total plan that includes tracking, arresting, extraditing or deporting terrorists, and halting movements of money that support terror. The United States must preempt terrorist networks from executing their brand of hatred.

It is a lengthy process, as Secretary of State Colin L. Powell acknowledged Thursday night. It is difficult. It requires coordination with other intelligence agencies and the leaders of other nations. It is necessary.