Editorial - Reaction to Sept. 11 attacks

Cool heads must prevail (Editorial)

It is a rare and restrained individual who does not react to last week's terror with a fierce desire for brute vengeance. Plenty of Americans (and Canadians) on the street believe that America and its friends should mobilize and obliterate the source of this violence.

This genuinely felt fury is understandable; it is a natural human response. However, we are equipped with the ability to permit our heads to control our gut reactions. This is just such a case when we should be especially careful in our individual and national responses.

As individuals, we have the option to lash out, as some have in incidents around North America, against people who share the religion or ethnicity of the alleged perpetrators. That would be unforgivable and immoral. To blame all members of a group for the actions of a few has no place in a just society.

As a nation, Canada is in the process of deciding how far we are willing to go in supporting American actions against the perpetrators; in this case, identified as Osama bin Laden and his followers. It is imperative that this process be done with the coolest heads possible.

Since the Second World War, the world has developed a complex and effective system of international law. We have witnessed war crimes tribunals and we have created an international court system. Though the attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon are deemed to be completely unprecedented, they are, in fact, precisely the sort of thing for which the international court in The Hague was created.

We must demand due process, even for the most horrendous of crimes. Adolph Eichmann had a fair trial in Israel and other perpetrators of Nazi crimes were dealt with at Nuremberg. Rwandan and Bosnian leaders are similarly facing justice.

Is America fundamentally different from other victims?

Israel, which has lived with the threat of terrorist violence since its very inception, has been criticized by friends as well as enemies whenever it has moved against terrorist leaders.

If America wants to maintain its reputation as a guardian of liberty and democracy, it must provide justice - not vengeance - to its attackers.

How else, after all, will we be able to differentiate between terrorism and a civil society?

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