Article April 7, 2003 Issue

Can PRAYER help bring TERRORISM to an END?

By Stansfield Turner

A Big Question Today is whether the United States, along with much of the rest of the world, is doing all it should to arrest terrorism. It has been using both the offense and the defense.

On offense in October 2001, the US turned to military force against the Taliban and was quite successful. Since then, the only place it has found to apply force was to a vehicle moving across the desert in Yemen. The vehicle was, supposedly, filled with Al Qaeda operatives, but no evidence of that has been shown publicly. It appears, then, there is a limit on the tactic of using force, owing to a lack of targets and to issues of civil rights.

Another tactic of the offense has been to arrest, incarcerate, and indict suspected Al Qaeda personnel. The US can continue to do this, though there are limitations here, also because of civil rights.

About the author

Admiral Stansfield Turner was director of Central Intelligence under President Jimmy Carter, and a career naval officer who served with the Seventh Fleet off Vietnam and commanded NATO's southern flank. He shares his thoughts on defeating terrorism in the world today.

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