The terrorists just happened to be Arab immigrants.
Sometimes looking through old magazines gives you a perspective you had forgotten for a long time. Sometimes you find a nugget of wisdom. Other times, you are simply shocked.
In an opinion piece published shortly after the World Trade Center attack of 1993, Georgetown University law professor and attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights David Cole wrote:
Several of the men arrested for the World Trade Center bombing and the alleged plot to attack buildings and tunnels in New York City happened to be Arab immigrants. The public response has been to focus not on criminal activity but on Arabs and immigrants as a class.
(* The Nation, July 26/August 2, 1993) They just happened to be Arab immigrants. What a wild coincidence. You might just happen to get the flu, or even cancer. The alleged plot involving bridges and tunnels was in fact real. Regardless of whether civil rights were trampled after the 1993 bombing, which killed 6 people, it is apparent that US actions were unfortunately insufficient to prevent the 9/11 attacks, which killed over 3,000. Near the end, Cole says:
America must be ready to respond to acts of terror, carried out or planned, with the full force of law. For those who kill or injure civilians for political ends, long prison terms and deportation are appropriate; punishing immigrants who merely associate with unpopular groups is not.
(† Id.)
What I see here is evidence that the left-wing approach to terrorism was flawed far before 9/11. Today we understand that terrorism is not merely a law enforcement problem; it is also a military problem. One might reference the 1986 Libya incident. We understand that punishment of terrorists is not enough; we must prevent terrorism. Above all, we understand that terrorism doesn’t just happen. The terrorism we are fighting occurs as a result of free choices made within the political context of the largely Arab and entirely Muslim militancy that takes as its project the conquest of the world and the establishment of Saudi and Taliban-style societies everywhere.