War against terrorists

On 6 January 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt defined the Four Freedoms as freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear. He emphasized that the fourth freedom as "anywhere in the world." Less than a year later, the Second World War broke out, but it was supposed to be "the war to end all wars."

Now America has experienced an even more treacherous attack than Pearl Harbor. The U.S. responded with what it first called "Operation Noble Eagle", which was later changed to "Operation Infinite Justice." But even that new term has now been deemed unsuitable for there is no such thing as infinite justice on earth. What Americans are actually doing is righting the unrightable wrong and they have shown that they are all ready to march into hell for a heavenly cause.

This is going to be a long drawn-out struggle. Every nation and every individual opposing terrorism should do their share to support the U.S. war against terrorists. The biggest contribution we can make in this war is to capture and bring to justice all the members of the Abu Sayyaf. True that they have not done as much damage as the terrorists responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center, but they are even more despicable for they have no political motivations. Their only interest is to make money from hostages.

The shortest war in history was the battle between the British and the island-country of Zanzibar that lies off the coast of southeastern Africa. On 27 August 1896, the British battle fleet arrived and gave Said Khalid, the pretender Sultan of Zanzibar, an ultimatum. Sultan Khalid refused to leave the palace and fighting broke out at 9:02 a.m. It peaked at 9:15 and was over by 9:40. This was because Zanzibar’s only defense was an ageing ocean tramp steamer used as a warship. It was sunk with only two shells. The Sultan’s palace was totally demolished and the crowning insult was when the British demanded that Zanzibar refund them for the ammunition they used in wrecking their palace and sinking their tramp steamer.

In contrast, there was the Thirty Years’ War in Germany which began in Bohemia in 1618 and was terminated by the peace of Westphalia in 1648. And the long series of wars between England and France that started during the reign of Edward III in 1337 and ended during the rule of Henry VI in 1453. The successive wars actually lasted 116 years but it is historically remembered as the Hundred Years’ War.

The war declared against the United States by the terrorist Bin Laden who is based in Afghanistan will be sporadic, world-wide and may last for a few years. It will be the first unconventional "world war."