The terrorist attack on Tuesday was the most serious attack on the US in its history. This time, the attacks were not carried out with bombs or any other tool traditionally found in a terrorist's toolbox. Instead, it was a war -- carefully planned and launched against major political, military and economic centers in the US.
Unlike past terrorist attacks, which mostly targeted one specific place or building, this time synchronized attacks destroyed the World Trade Center and seriously damaged the Pentagon. US President George W. Bush will have to focus his efforts on this one crisis for some time to come. The upcoming foreign trips planned by Bush and other US officials will also be affected.
About two or three days before the attacks, the US government issued a warning to its troops and its people residing abroad in Japan and South Korea about possible terrorist attacks. But the attacks actually happened in the US itself.
Israeli attack helicopters raided the Palestinian intelligence agency on Sept. 3, and then the headquarters of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine on Sept. 8. If the terrorist attacks this time were indeed launched by the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, they could be linked to the bombing and missile attacks between Israel and Palestine in the past two months. US and Israeli buildings, both inside and outside their countries, are likely to come under more attacks in the near future.
Attacks on the financial and government centers located in New York and Washington are political terrorism, the characteristics of which include using systematic bomb attacks to achieve political purposes; creating an atmosphere of terror; choosing unlikely targets of political or economic symbolism; launching attacks unpredictably without following any pattern or tradition; launching attacks with car bombs and other large-scale explosive devices.
Excuses for all terrorist acts can be found in the political philosophy of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The purpose was to force the US government to change its stance on certain controversial issues. Both the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Saudi militant Osama bin Laden have frequently used similarly violent, dreadful means to achieve political goals.
Since 1968, one-third of all international terrorists acts have targeted the US. The US has a set of anti-terrorism strategies, including the strengthening of intelligence-gathering and law enforcement, and the use of its military.
The Bill Clinton administration had drafted the Anti-Terrorism Bill before the Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995. Afterwards, a more comprehensive counter-terrorism plan was mapped out. But terrorists attacks in the US came not only from domestic organizations or individuals, but also terrorist organizations abroad, especially from the Middle East.
Even though the Bush administration has listed anti-terrorists acts as one of the five main issues in national defense, it has focused on how to guard against missile attacks by terrorist organizations or the so-called rogue nations. The methods and scale of Tuesday's attacks weren't likely to have been included in the US' simulations and preparedness drills.
After such horrific terror attacks against the US, Taiwan must take heed that such acts might one day occur here. An immediate question facing many nations, including Taiwan, is how to deal with the political, economic and military impacts caused by such terrorist attacks.
Lin Cheng-yi is director of the Institute of European and American Studies at Academia Sinica.
Translated by Eddy Chang and Jackie Lin
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