Professors discuss terrorism

By Laura Pelner
Campus Editor

More people died in the four planes that went down on the East Coast Tuesday then in any other terrorist attack in United States' history.

In fact, excluding the incidents on Tuesday, of the 11,500 terrorist attacks that have occurred worldwide in the last 30 years, less then 10,000 people have died.

"That's less then one person per incident," said Michael Stohl, dean of International Programs and professor of political science, who cited those facts in a forum sponsored by the University Thursday evening to help the Purdue community learn more about terrorism.

"In fact, 90 percent (of the 11,500 terrorist incidents) had no one or only one person who died," Stohl said.

These statistics are one reason Stohl cited for why the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., and the fallen plane in Pennsylvania, Tuesday morning were so different then most other terrorist activities.

Stohl and the two professors who spoke with him — Keith Shimko and William McLauchlan, both associate professors of political science — offered other reasons why they thought Tuesday's disaster was different, one being its lack of sophistication.

"It's not sophisticated to hijack a plane," Stohl said, though he added hijacking four planes is complicated.

He said the method was basic but the coordination was not.

Because this attack was so unusual, both in its implementation and magnitude, the professors said the United States' response will be critical.

"How the audience reacts is far more important then the acts themselves," Stohl said. "The reaction of what we do is more important then what they did. That will define the incident."

McLauchlan agreed and said the nation would have to act within the boundaries of the law. "If we don’t comply with the law here, we're the same as the people who did this — which may be what they want," he said.

President Bush has already condemned Tuesday's tragedies as acts of war and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

Shimko cautioned, though, that if the United States decides to pursue military action it will need support from many other nations, including ones it may not be friendly with now.

"If the United States goes to a war on terrorism and we don't have the cooperation of the Arab nations, it will turn into a war on the Arab nations," Shimko said. "I don't even want to think about that."

Some people in the audience also adamantly opposed war, including Signe Waller, a county resident. Waller began her remarks by saying she's from New York and lost at least one loved one Tuesday.

"I don't want to bomb anyone else into the Stone Age," Waller said. "If you deal out violent retribution you don't solve a problem … I don't want to have it on my conscious that there's a Muslim woman with a veil and a baby in her arms who died in my name."

However, others thought war was inevitable and asked questions about what might happen to the people responsible for Tuesday's acts.

One man said he thought Osama bin Laden, who national officials say is a top suspect for the incidents, will be taken out regardless of whether it's determined he's guilty. Another person said the same of Sadam Hussein.

Regardless of who's guilty, all three professors said the United States should focus on stopping all terrorism, not just the people responsible for Tuesday's disasters. They said it would be impossible to take out every person with terrorist thoughts, so instead the nation should focus on the programs, especially cutting the money flow to terrorist activities.

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Campus editor: Laura Pelner

Assistant campus editors: Kurt Esposito, Dave Stephens

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