WORLD MUST BE RID OF DEADLY ZEALOTS

With the wave of suicide bombings in the Mideast, it is imperative that we
ask some very hard questions. Are Arabs and Palestinians being brainwashed?
If so, who is doing the brainwashing? What is the nature of the false
ideologies being taught? And finally, how can the teachings that spark
martyrdom be best expunged from the hearts and minds of those so
indoctrinated that their primary purpose in life is to blow themselves up
and kill as many innocent people as possible?

In an outstanding report by Associated Press reporters Sharon Crenson and
Martha Mendoza, it is suggested John Walker Lindh was brainwashed to become
a traitor and fight for the al-Qaida as were American soldiers and
prisoners of war during the Korean War. Yet no hard evidence is given to
support this claim, to present the methodology or to associate the
techniques used by the Communist Chinese in yesteryears and those used by
al-Qaida or other terrorist organizations today.

On the surface it certainly looks like young men and women are strapping
explosives to themselves because they have had all good sense and reason
washed out of their minds; but is this the case?

Is not it entirely possible that these suicide bombers are not brainwashed
or crazy, but clear headed and logical; that they have reasonable
explanations for becoming martyrs; that they are dying for their God and
their country just as we teach our children to give their life for America?

Certainly there must be something more to what goes into making someone
hijack a plane and fly it into a building. Perhaps such chemical
hallucinogens as hashish or opium have been used in the reprogramming
process to delude the thought process and create monsters, religious
zealots, who will stop at nothing to blow themselves and everyone else to
smithereens. What are we going to do if such brainwashed, dope fiends get
ahold of nuclear, biological or chemical agents of mass destruction?

Clearly the civilized peoples of the world can not sit back and watch as
terrorists pervert their own faith, brainwashing young men and women,
turning them into lost souls who see no light at the end of the tunnel
other than martyrdom.

Our war on terrorism must include a war upon all who teach martyrdom, upon
all who seek to supply the drugs, the explosives and the means for carrying
out attacks against America and our allies. For even though we may not know
all the answers to all the questions, one thing is certain: If we cannot
restore reason and rational to the our enemy's mind, we must blow away the
crazy zealots before they will blow us away!

Terry Lynch

Montgomery