01/11/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09639

HEMISPHERIC SOLIDARITY

The world is uniting in the American-led fight against global terrorism. Dozens of nations are involved. The coalition and Afghan forces are defeating al-Qaida and the Taleban. A new administration is in place in Afghanistan and that war-torn country is starting to rebuild. Humanitarian aid is once again reaching the people. For the first time in nearly thirteen years, the U-S flag flies over the American embassy in Kabul.

But al-Qaida and other terrorist groups have global tentacles. As U-S Secretary of State Colin Powell put it, "The coalition against terrorism must advance on all fronts –- political, financial, legal, and military –- to root out terrorists and terrorist organizations."

Immediately after the suicide attacks that brought down the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon, the Organization of American States offered moral and practical support. The O-A-S was the first multilateral organization to condemn the terrorist attacks. The Rio Treaty was invoked and the attack against the United States was deemed an attack on the whole Western Hemisphere.

America’s neighbors have taken other actions as well. The Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism has called for controls "to prevent funding of terrorist organizations, increased multilateral cooperation on border security, and shared law enforcement and counterterrorism intelligence and information."

Secretary of State Powell said that the terrorists who attacked the United States "attacked the principles that the nations of the Americas hold most dear: democracy, the rule of law, human rights, and tolerance." And, said Mr. Powell, "Just as the attacks unified the people of the United States, so too have they strengthened the ties that bind the peoples of the Americas."

Destroying al-Qaida in Afghanistan is not enough. Terrorism must be destroyed wherever terrorists live and work – in the Western Hemisphere or anywhere else in the world.