Handcuffed by our Western values?

The question now is this: are terrorists deterred by their own potential destruction, when they already act as suicide bombers? Stated clearer, once one is released from the belief in life, as stated in our Declaration of Independence, how may he be effectively confronted and countered?

What binds the terrorists we face today together is the religion of the intentional, indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians. No true religion can underwrite this thinking.

There is a great religion sitting quietly on the sidelines here: the religion of Islam. If this is a God-centered religion, people who follow the teachings of this great faith need to distance themselves now and forever from the terrorists who are people who underwrite indiscriminate killing of innocent civilians.

What binds us, the Western democracies, together, first and foremost, is the belief that all people have a right to life. As so eloquently stated in the US Declaration of Independence, all mankind are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”.

From the terrorist perspective, terror-war is the waging of war against democracies and life. It is meant to cause death, suffering and anguish among masses of civilian populations in pursuit of political gain.

Given the chasm in values between mass killers and people firmly adhering to the right to life (and a lot of other rights), it seems the PATRIOT Act, NSA eavesdropping and restrictions on liquids aboard aircraft are minor indeed.

This conundrum of belief between terrorism and America, in fact, the West, must consequently alter the way we view and wage this war on terror in the future.

Before Iran has a nuclear weapon, we might rethink our values and moral restrictions. Or ask ourselves, how many lives would we be ready to lose?