Editorial: Can of worms was opened years ago

The U.S. government should redouble its efforts to strangle terrorism, including more pre-emptive strikes, shifting the emphasis from defense to offense.

In the weeks ahead expect suggestions that last week's U.S. missile strikes against terrorist facilities in Sudan and Afghanistan have opened a can of worms. This can of worms was opened a long time ago -- not by the United States but by the terrorist themselves.

In 1983 suicide bombers blew up a Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines and sailors. In 1988, the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing killed all 259 passengers and its crew, including 11 on the ground in Scotland. Of the dead, 189 were Americans.

By 1993 terrorism no longer was confined to military and diplomatic missions overseas or to tourists traveling abroad. Islamic extremists bombed the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, killing six and injuring more than 1,000.

Most recently the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, killing 257 people. Obviously the United States should prepare itself for further terrorist attacks, including the strengthening of security at U.S. embassies and military installations.

But a good defense is no longer enough. This nation should not sit back and take punch after punch without responding. That only encourages more terrorism.

Indeed, the United States has every right to strike against terrorists without warning if it believes that an attack against Americans is imminent. For some time now we have been involved in an unconventional war with terrorists who have no respect for human decency or international law.

The United States should be swift and decisive, showing that it will not surrender to terrorist blackmail. This nation should redouble its efforts to strike back at terrorism, including pre-emptive strikes when it has credible information that Americans will be attacked.

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