War on terror:
Will an attack on Iraq root our terrorism?

President George W Bush has linked a war with Iraq to a war on terror.

He believes the US must invade Iraq to root out terrorism.

Certainly, in the aftermath of September 11, no nation can afford to be surprised by terror's global and brutal hand.

Security, be it physical, electronic or personal, now permeates our collective psyche.

It is now almost a cliche to say the world changed after September 11.

Change it did, but not necessarily in the ways we think.

The world is still a dangerous place.

The United States has been a terrorist target for years.

The global economic infrastructure it represents have always been targets for violence.

Airplanes aren't any riskier, they have been hijacked since the 1970s.

What September 11 changed is our perceptions of the world. It was a call to action.

US President George W Bush said, " We resolved then, and we are resolved today, to confront every threat from any source that could bring sudden terror and suffering to America."

The idea of 'winning' a war against terrorism is as vague as the structure of terrorist groups themselves.

Detractors contend that terrorism springs from mass perception of blatant injustices, and punitive action alone will only deepen the rage.

If an attack on Iraq doesn't go as planned they say, the prospect of massive civilian casualties could breed more terrorists than it destroys.

According to the International terrorism expert, Rohan Gunaratna, "... the support base of al-Qaeda and other Islamist groups will grow significantly if the US invades Iraq."

Already, driving Al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan has not ended the war against terrorism, but made it harder to win.

Rohan Gunaratna also said, "Al-qaeda poses a clear and present danger to the International community. There must ba a multi-pronged, multi-dimensional, multi-agency and above all a multi-national response to defeat al-Qaeda."

The eyes and ears of the intelligence community must now be everywhere because trying to predict the next soft target is almost impossible.