To answer this question, I want first to challenge the notion of 'war' as applied to those acts and ideologies that we refer to as 'terrorism.' To discuss "the war on terrorism" as though this were an uncontroversial term is itself a polemical act that perpetuates a world-view. That world-view promotes the use of military force as a solution to the spread of ideologies.

We have to call into question the notion of a war on an 'ism, even though it seems natural to use the term war to describe our determination to overcome an evil. When, in the 1960s, Lyndon Johnson proposed a "war on poverty," few imagined that we would send soldiers to kill and die fighting an enemy called poverty. No Congressional appropriations were made for body armor to protect these warriors against the illiteracy and ignorance that feed poverty and give it aid and comfort. Poverty is not a belief, but a circumstance; therefore, notions of deploying bombs to destroy it seem ludicrous.

During the Johnson administration, another 'ism viewed as an evil by many was racism. At the time, there were still those who held the view that practices of racial discrimination were right and proper. Some of these people, who quite fervently believed in the concept of racial inferiority, even practiced a form of violent terrorism. However, no one at the time suggested that the U.S. military launch air-strikes against even the most virulent among them. The notion of a war on racism was prevalent, but military participation in the desegregation of America was pretty much limited to peacekeeping operations.

As an evil, the scourges of poverty are stories from a distant planet to most Americans. Poverty in America is hidden, behind our image of ourselves, behind the failure of the corporate media to provide responsible local journalism, behind an alienation that separates many Americans from their communities. Poverty in American today hides its face, and even racism is invisible to many Americans. Terror and terrorism, on the other hand, do have a face for Americans. Osama bin Laden is the iconic face of terrorism in the U.S. today.

Evil actors like bin Laden are good publicity for those who hold the world-view that promotes military action as the way to fight extremist ideologies. Unfortunately, for every bad actor, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of unknown others, fighting in their cause, and hundreds, if not thousands, of suffering people surrounding them, faces that look much more like

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