War against terrorism has just begun

War against terrorism has just begun

The Washington Post, Washington

The death toll from Saturday night's bombing on the Indonesian
resort island of Bali makes this latest act of terrorism the
worst of its kind worldwide since the Sept. 11 attacks in
America. More than 180 people were killed and more than 300
wounded in the bomb explosion outside of the tourist-packed
nightclub. It was, said the country's national police chief, "the
worst act of terror in Indonesia's history." The explosion was
not, however, the first despicable act of terrorism on Indonesian
soil.

Another bomb exploded near a U.S. consular office in the Bali
capital city of Denpasar. On the same evening, a small bomb
exploded outside another discotheque, and a small handmade bomb
broke windows of the Philippine consulate on another Indonesian
island. Last month, a grenade was exploded during the early
morning hours in a vehicle in front of an unoccupied U.S.
building in Jakarta. Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim
country, is becoming a haven for terrorists, both home-grown and,
as many suspect, the al Qaeda network.

It should not have taken a deadly inferno to demonstrate to
President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government that stronger
action must be taken against the extremists now operating nearly
at will in Indonesia. That a strong anti-terrorism law is bottled
up in parliament underscores the lack of official resolve in
confronting a danger and threat to Indonesia and her neighbors
that grow worse with each passing day.

There is no accommodating Jemaah Islamiyah, the militant
Indonesian group with ties to al Qaeda and its dream of a pan-
Islamic state across the region. Either local extremists and al
Qaeda are sought out and fought, or Indonesia will become the
base of operations for global terrorism and a scourge to its
Southeast Asian neighbors.

The Saturday bombings, coming as they did two years to the day
after the USS Cole was bombed in a Yemeni port, are a reminder
that Western interests, particularly American interests, are
always in the crosshairs of terrorists. The attacks are also a
sobering reminder that the war against terrorism is in its early
stages, that more attacks against American interests and targets
can be expected and that to the extent this country becomes
distracted from the overriding demand to break the back of
terrorism, we do so at our own peril.