Opinion: from Israel, Japan and USA
Israeli Communist Forum

The terrorist attacks deserves the most clear and unequivocal of 
condemnations. At the same time, we must warn against the attempt of the US 
and its allies to use this attack as a pretext to open aggressive military 
offensives against countries or organisations which have no connection to 
the terrorist attacks in the US. Such offensives could result in the death 
of many innocent civilians and in the creation of new focal points of 
tension and conflict, thereby actually increasing the incidence of 
terrorism and of the support for it.

It should be remembered that the US already carried out numerous criminal 
acts of war against various countries and people, which had resulted in 
millions of casualties among innocent civilians.

It is enough to mention the bloody war against Vietnam, the criminal 
blockade of Cuba, the invasions of Panama and Grenada, the murderous 
attacks on Yugoslavia, and the support extended to fascist dictatorships in 
Latin America and elsewhere.

Among the latter were regimes whose leaders came to power by toppling 
democratic and progressive governments, with direct help from the USA.

For its part, the Government of Israel made use of the events in the US. On 
the very day of the attacks it launched a new invasion of Palestinian 
territory, the longest and bloodiest to date, with 12 Palestinians being 
killed on a single day, including a nine-year old girl. We hear calls for 
all out war against the Palestinian Authority.

Action is urgently needed to remove the underlying causes, which drive 
people to acts of despair. There is an urgent need to fundamentally change 
the economic policies which caused the gap between rich and poor, between 
developed and "developing" countries.

Communist Party, USA
Sam Webb, National Chair

Terrorism is morally and politically reprehensible. Under no circumstances 
can it be justified. Its only outcome is to strengthen the forces of 
political reaction, racism, and militarism in our own country as well as 
abroad.

People are questioning long held assumptions that inform how we think about 
our lives, our families, and our nation's future.

We are all asking, "How could it happen here and what can be done to 
prevent its reoccurrence?"

As a nation we have felt invulnerable to external threats owing to our 
military might, unrivalled economic power, and geographical location. 
According to official mythology, we were a shining and secure city on the 
hill.

Somehow we thought that we were immune and protected from the violence and 
turmoil experienced by other nations not blessed with our advantages. But 
no more.

No country, not even ours, is an impenetrable.

So how do we as a nation respond to terrorist attacks?

There is a clamour for immediate retaliatory strikes even if we don't know 
who the enemy is.

The accent in these quarters beginning with the Bush administration and the 
mass media, is on military measures, on projecting American power to far 
flung regions of the world, and on turning our country into a garrison 
state, with diminished civil liberties and privacy rights.

We can kill the terrorists and we can tear up the networks and states that 
sustain them, but as long as there exists this underbelly of fierce 
exploitation, grinding poverty, unequal political power, and the 
unrestrained use of military force by the powerful against the weak, 
terrorism will continue unabated.

Retribution in one form or another will come from the dispossessed and 
disinherited across our globe to the extent that a handful of nations and 
powerful transnational corporations — especially Big Oil which figures so 
heavily in shaping our policies in the Middle East — impose their profit 
driven interests on a reluctant world.

How can we break the cycle of violence, how can we combat terrorism?

First, the world community has to condemn terrorism in all of its forms. 
There is absolutely no justification for terrorist action whether carried 
out by powerful states or loose networks of individuals.

No one nation, and particularly our own, should act alone or assume that it 
has a unilateral right to lead a world coalition against terrorism. An 
emergency international conference under the auspices of the United Nations 
would seem like a good place to begin such a world campaign.

Mass expressions for peace and against terrorism in all its forms should be 
organised in major cities around the world.

In the longer run, building an economically just, peaceful, democratic, and 
tolerant world is the only sure path to isolate and eventually eliminate 
terrorism and all other forms of warfare.

The 20th century was the bloodiest and most violent in the history of 
humankind. Rather than fighting the first war of the 21st century, let us 
find a way to eliminate war in all of its forms and guarantee economic 
security to all people. For our children and future generations, let us 
finally turn our swords into ploughshares and study war no more.

Japanese Communist Party

The terrorist attacks are heinous acts of barbarism, which took the lives 
of many people indiscriminately. They are absolutely unjustifiable criminal 
acts.

The JCP immediately expressed its heartfelt condolences to the people who 
were killed and injured and condemned the brutal terrorist attacks with 
deep anger.

At the same time, the JCP made clear its position that the elimination of 
terrorism should be sought not by retaliation by military force but by law 
and reason.

We have growing concern over preparations being made for large-scale 
retaliation by military force. Military retaliation is not only ineffective 
for elimination of terrorism, but will also lead to new wars around the 
world with enormous damage, beginning a vicious cycle of further terrorist 
attacks and military retaliation, and creating countless new victims. There 
is a great danger the situation will get bogged down with no way out.

The JCP believes that what is necessary now is not a rush to military 
retaliation, but bringing the perpetrators to justice with the United 
Nations at the centre based on the UN Charter and international law.

The basic rules for dealing with terror suspects, which have been 
established globally and stipulated in various international agreements, 
are to extradite them to the country that suffered the damage and to bring 
them to justice.

In the spirit of both the international agreements and UN Security Council 
resolutions on terrorism, the international community, with the United 
Nations at its centre, should co-operate and do its utmost to identify, 
apprehend and bring to justice the suspects of the terrorist acts.

It is essential for the international community to act in concert according 
to the UN Charter and international law, including taking collective 
measures, such as economic sanctions.

To bring the suspects to justice, it may be possible to set up a special 
international court under the United Nations.

It is not in accord with the principles approved by today's international 
community to resort to large-scale military retaliation without making an 
effort to bring suspects to justice through international co-operation.

We are convinced that justice in accord with the law, not a legally 
baseless response, is the most effective response to outlaws.