Can nations drop the terror habit?

King Abdullah of Jordan had an interesting idea. He told the American interviewer Larry King last week that some countries had unquestionably supported terrorists. It is time, he said, to tell those nations that "what is done, is done", but now every nation must put aside its terrorists and support for them. Those who don't, said the young monarch, will pay the price from the whole world... .

Justice has never been served for two of our region's most egregious terror attacks, even though those responsible are well known. North Korean leaders were behind a massive truck bomb attack on the visiting South Korean cabinet in Rangoon in 1983. In 1987, the North Koreans compounded that outrage by planting a bomb that resulted in the mid-air destruction of a Korean Air Lines jetliner off the Burma coast. All 115 innocent people aboard were killed. Pyongyang has never atoned for or renounced such actions. That has ensured that North Korea always is mentioned as a terrorist nation, as well as a sponsor and organizer of terror.

But there is much to be said for King Abdullah's approach. Many past atrocities can never be avenged or adjudicated. That old master terrorist Lenin is long dead. He was the one who said that the purpose of terrorism is to terrorize, and is as responsible as anyone for the rise of state terror in the past century. If countries are willing to admit, atone for and renounce their past -- in the manner of Germany, for example, over its world wars and savagery -- it may be possible to move on, as the Jordanian king suggested.

That would leave the matter of states and groups which refuse to join the action against terrorism. These will have to be dealt with. There are too many, from the Taleban -- they are not a recognized government, after all -- to the Tamil Tigers and Abu Sayyaf to the lunatic fringe of front groups like Irish, Indian and Thai separatists. Nor can it be enough for supporters of terror to claim their own hands are clean. The two main countries where violent people reside to scream their support for bloody terrorism are the United States and Britain. These two bastions of free speech must devise ways to stop such calls and open support for violence, while maintaining their admirable freedoms.

-- The Bangkok Post