We've seen misled idealistic young men do several horrible acts since the beginning of this century.

20 of them hijacked 4 airplanes and tore down the World Trade Center in New York, killing some 3,000 people overall. Several more blew up trains in Madrid a year later, and four British-bred young fanatics blew up some trains and a bus in London, a year after that. Terrorist explosions also killed hundreds of people in Bali and other places as well.

Meanwhile, in the United States alone, there have been some 17,000 murders every year, and some 95,000 rapes. Each year, there were some 45,000 deaths in motor vehicle accidents. In the UK, there are every year some 8,000 alcohol related deaths.

Given these figures, one might ask, why not start a war on cars? A war on roads? A war on booze? Oh, wait - our great-grandparents tried that.

We all know why. Because we think we can control these risks. We think we won't die on the highway, when in fact the issue is to a large extent out of our hands. And we think our democratic liberties are more important than the 95,000 people a year who are being raped - in the US alone. Surely, if we sacrificed enough of our liberties, we could prevent rapes from happening in the first place?

Compared to all the other threats we face every day, terrorists are a mosquito. Terrorists can be defeated with good intelligence and good strategy. There is no terrorism if there is no emotional cause that stirs it up, in the first place.

Most terrorism in the past few decades has been due to some perceived injustice. The only way to cure terrorism is to cure the perception of injustice. The IRA arose because the UK was oppressing Northern Ireland. The ETA arose because the Spanish wouldn't let the Basque country separate. And Muslim terrorism arose because the state of Israel was forced upon them in the midst of their most sacred country. And for the past few decades, Israel has been a driving force of Muslim terrorism everywhere.

Israel is as religiously fanatical as Muslims, and it is backed by religiously fanatical men. It is a conflict-driven state backed by religious fundamentalist in the US. Europe is also seen as backing Israel, although less so than the US. Both the US and Europe therefore attract Muslim fanatic hatred by association with Israel.

Why does everyone need this conflict?

Why does everyone need to support Jewish religious fanatics in Israel who oppose peace and manage to disrupt (murder or dislodge) every one of their leaders who threatens to make some real peace progress?

Why does everyone need a country of religious fanatics so inappropriately placed in the Middle East, in the first place?

Hey, forget that - what sane Jew moves to Israel at all?

If you are a Jew and you want to be in a friendly and peaceful country where you won't be discriminated and will be given opportunity, you move to the United States!

The people who move to Israel are those who are willing to raise their children on a battle front, for what? So that they may live in a country that was created specifically for the Jewish religion? So that they may live without having to put up with neighbors who aren't Jews?

Don't tell me people move to Israel because they want to be safe from persecution. You don't move into the middle of Arab country that hates Jews in order to be safe from persecution. If you're a Jew and you want to be safe from persecution, you move to the United States.

The fact is that Israel is fundamentally a state of Jewish religious fanatics that is ill-placed where it is. And there is no need for supposedly civilized nations like the US and Europe to support one group of religious fanatics, the hardline Israelis, against another group of religious fanatics, the hardline Muslims. There is no need to get involved in that.

What we should do is, our countries should be hospitable to everyone who integrates into our secular societies, regardless of their origin. We should be inhospitable to everyone who champions religious truths above peaceful coexistence. That's all. We only need to do that, and then we won't be attracting the ire of angry Muslims any more.

And then, perhaps, someone could focus on the problem of 17,000 annual murders and 95,000 rapes, just in the US.

Perhaps the next US president can blame it on Castro's links to porn and invade Cuba...