I’ll never forget the horrible events of September 11--one of the blackest days in U.S. history. Yet I’ve also been heartened by ordinary Americans all around the country responding to that awful day with a spine-tingling show of patriotism and a compelling determination to rid the world of terrorism.
Americans simply won’t tolerate terrorism any longer. For too long, we’ve been willing to look the other way. This is a luxury we can no longer afford. The time has come to stamp out terrorism in all it forms.
One of the least appreciated strains of terrorism affects American farmers directly. It’s called “bio-terrorism” or “eco-terrorism.” Radical environmentalists have tried for years to advance an extremist agenda by monkey-wrenching construction equipment and spiking trees about to be logged. Some of them recently have turned their attention to agriculture--and specifically to the genetically modified crops American farmers now grow in abundance as they try to feed a hungry world.
These aren’t just a bunch of college kids embracing a trendy “cause of the month”--they’re terrorists who have cost our society millions of dollars by trashing experimental crop fields and destroying research labs. One example among many: On New Year’s Eve last year, Michigan State University suffered more than $1 million in damage when arsonists attacked its agriculture building. “The only terror involved is from organizations that profit from terrorizing the earth,” said a spokesman for the group claiming responsibility. “If a little terror puts them out of business, then so be it.”
What these well-funded zealots aim to do is “defend” the people around the globe against capitalism, including all of its attendant advancements in trade and technology. These fearmongers are deeply misguided, but some are so committed to their perverse cause that they have turned to violence.
Their behavior has not been as widely publicized as the activities of other terrorists because they’ve not claimed any lives--so far. They’ve merely inflicted damage against personal and private property. That’s a significant problem by itself, and must now be opposed as we begin a robust opposition to terrorism everywhere.
It’s vital that we not underestimate this foe. Terrorists who now have flagrant disregard for other people often start by waging war against property. It seems probable that before too long, one of them is going to fire bomb a university facility where a scientist is hard at work late at night trying to develop a better soybean. When that finally happens and lives are lost -- they will still insist that their ends justify their means.
We should make sure we stop the bio-terrorists before they claim a single life. They have not yet done anything approaching the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, and hopefully they never will. Yet they can be quite ruthless. They strike from the same impulse that drove the September 11 suicide bombers: The belief that their sick actions are somehow okay because they are not just above the law but also our common understanding of morality.
One practical way to defeat them is to insist on continuing the international trade talks that lead to a greater worldwide acceptance of genetically modified foods--talks that the terrorists themselves would desperately like to see cancelled. There’s an important World Trade Organization meeting scheduled for November in Qatar. It may now be necessary to tighten security for it and perhaps even shift the location, but the talks themselves must go on and their content must remain unaltered. Anything less will encourage the perpetrators of violence to continue on their reckless course.
These discussions are important in their own right. But making sure they move forward now is a small way to fight our new war against terrorism--a worthwhile victory in a small skirmish of an enormous conflict.
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