FOLLOW THE MONEY TO DESTROY TERRORISM

How can 19 men unite to commit simultaneous suicide? Isn't that what the
two teen-agers did at Columbine or the Japanese kamikaze pilots in World
War II? Or the postal employee who shot his fellow workers randomly and
then himself? The happenings of Sept. 11 are similar mindless, gratuitous
acts of viciousness magnified a thousandfold. Futility, frustration,
helplessness, a lifetime of failure, of being exploited, violated, racially
slighted -- these produce consuming hatred that explodes into a sort of
sick success. "We showed 'em. We're important!"

If we're to enter into the dark shadows of the world where al Qaeda lurks
in a search for effective solutions, we must remember that the potential
for terrorism is everywhere. Its power lies in its weakness, its diffusiveness.

Respectable citizens in our inner city live in fear of street-gang terror.
Islamic fundamentalists terrorize in India, Israel and Turkey every day;
they have mass-murdered in Paris, Madrid, Moscow and Bologna. The Irish
Republican Army picks public places swarming with civilians for killing --
just like Hamas and Hezbollah. It has made plausible attempts on the lives
of two British prime ministers and, in 25 years, killed 302 policemen, 651
soldiers and 2,000 citizens. Its financial support flows from deluded
Americans. Latin American countries are plagued with primitive Marxist
guerrilla groups funded by the drug trade and kidnappings. In this world
right now, there are 165 genocidal campaigns in progress.

International terrorism is a little like slavery. It can't thrive without
tacit toleration of or a devil's bargain with a government. If we're going
to root it out, we'll have to follow the money. Only then can it be starved.

AUSTIN CUNNINGHAM, Orangeburg