Resisting Evil for the Common Good

On September 10, while in Vancouver, British Columbia, I watched the French-made television documentary, "Flight 93: America's New Heroes." Flight 93 was the United Airlines flight from Newark to San Francisco that, on the morning of September 11, 2001, was hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists.

From cockpit, mobile-phone and GTE-installed-Airfone conversations, makers of the documentary pieced together the events of that ill-fated, 90-minute flight, which ended in a fiery crash near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Based on the other targets attacked, the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and the general direction the terrorists who took control of the Boeing 757 were steering the plane, it can be assumed that the terrorists' target was the United States Capitol building, or, perhaps, the White House. Richard Guadagno, Jeremy Glick, Mark Bingham, Tom Burnett, and other passengers on Flight 93, stormed the terrorists, preventing them from reaching their target.

Unfortunately, the world in which we live, is like Flight 93. As it hurls itself through space, its inhabitants are like Flight 93's passengers. The goal of the earth's hijackers is to kill thousands, even millions if they can. Consequently, the earth's inhabitants must be willing to resist, even when it means possible or certain death for those who engage the hijackers. (See my article, "Jesus' View of Pacifism," Jerusalem Perspective 45 [Jul.-Aug. 1994]: 3-6.)

It might be helpful to look at the world's situation through the eyes of an insect. Bees, for instance, sense that they must be willing to sacrifice their lives in order to protect the existence of the hive from intruders.

Terrorists and their sponsors are intruders. Like the terrorists aboard Flight 93, they intrude on our peaceful existence, attempting to force their will on us. They are bent, not just on killing us, but on destroying our civilization. Either we resist, as did the passengers of Flight 93, or we ride on with them to their target. It is a life or death struggle.

In 1981 Israeli planes bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor in Osiraq. Israeli intelligence had informed the political echelons that the reactor would soon be up and running and would have the capability of producing the ingredients for a nuclear bomb. While, at the time, many world leaders condemned the Israeli attack, later, especially after dictator Hussein's real intentions were made clear as his army overran Kuwait, they realized that Israel had done them a favor.

Chances are good that Sadam Hussein, even if it is true that he has no connection with Al-Qaeda, is still up to no good. I think it is likely that, should the United States remove Hussein from power by force and access thus be gained to his biological laboratories and bomb factories, the weapons uncovered would be so appalling that the same leaders who today are calling for the United States not to attack Hussein would thank the United States for what it had done.

For the past 100 years there have been many nations that believed that by appeasing terrorists and dictators of aggression, or, in the case of the United States before it entered World War II, by staying out of the fight, they could spare themselves. Many European countries believe that by being soft on terrorist organizations, that is, by not speaking out against them and cracking down on them, these organizations will leave them alone. They should realize that one cannot make a pact with terrorists. Yesterday, New York and Washington, DC were attacked. Tomorrow it will be Paris and Berlin. These European countries may learn that terrorists, and dictators like Sadam Hussein, have no mercy or conscience; but by then it may be too late.