opinion My friend and PAS member of parliament for Pokok Sena, Mahfuz Omar, was obviously and evidently wrong when he called the United States "the mother of all terrorists" yesterday. Mahfuz was perhaps too emotional on a matter which is of great human and universal concern.

While I personally always empathise with victims of injustices, oppression and persecution, I also believe that innocent Americans or any other civilians in the world - both Muslims and non-Muslims alike - should not be targetted intentionally, randomly and cold-bloodedly by any armed cowards in a lethal attack. It is simply not honourable, let alone heroic.

The governments of the US and its allies have certainly the right and responsibility to strike back at those cowards, whatever religions they claim to follow, to assuage fear and to protect their citizens, even though they must always bear in mind that justice should always be tempered with mercy and prudence.

They must also not promote Islamophobia at the instigation of some other non-Islamic, including secular, extremists. In other words, terrorists must be treated as terrorists as such, not "Islamic", "Christian", "Buddhist", "Hindu" or "Jewish" terrorists.

Past errors

True, the US committed quite a number of bloody errors in the past in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, especially the support given during the Cold War to dictators like Somoza in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile, Shah Pahlavi in Iran and Marcos in the Philippines.

Within the US, too, there was McCarthyism in the 1950s when even innocent Americans, including prominent politicians and government officials were publicly smeared as "communists" and "Soviet spies". The people and government of the US must never forget those tragic follies in the past.

There will certainly be plenty of opportunities in the future for Mahfuz to rationally criticise the foreign policies of the US. Mahfuz's concern for the well-being of the poor and downtrodden people of Afghanistan should also be appreciated.

However, for him to call the US the "mother of all terrorists" at this moment is totally unacceptable. Only friends like me bother to point out his mistake and error. His political rivals would secretly encourage him to make more such silly and outrageous statements.

Mahfuz and the people of the world must also not forget the contribution and tremendous sacrifices made by the people and government of the US in the first and second world wars.

The Great Wars were not made by the US, which had always wanted to be isolationist. They were started by aggressive ultra-nationalist powers in Europe and Asia. It was the US, together with China, Great Britain and the former Soviet Union that finally freed us from the scourge of ultra-nationalisms. It was the Americans who poured financial resources into post-war Europe and Asia to help rebuild homes, hospitals, schools, roads, railways, ports, etc.

Despicable cowards

However, whatever the Americans have done - right or wrong - its innocent and unarmed people absolutely do not deserve to be targets of terrorist attacks. Even the most bitter enemy of the US, the Communist Party of Vietnam, did not do what the terrorists did in Washington DC and New York City. The oppressed Vietnamese chose a more honourable way to fight, namely a glorious and heroic war of national liberation. That was only after peaceful negotiation failed.

Contrast that with what the opportunistic and despicable cowards did to Washington DC and New York City. The latter did not identify themselves honourably, nor attempt to voice their specific demands and grievances first with the intention of finding peaceful solution. They did not declare war specifically, and most unforgivable of all is the fact they conspired secretly to select unarmed civilians as targets in a lethal attack.

If they are honourable and responsible fighters for the cause they claim to champion, why did they not think of the consequences that would impact on the community they claim to protect, like children, women and elderly men and women in Afghanistan who might become 'collateral damages' in the war against terrorism?

Or, have they actually planned to attack Washington and New York merely to infuriate the US so that in anger, fear and grief, the Americans and their allies would be trapped emotionally to inflict unnecessary damages to others, and be condemned by the world later?

So my friend Mahfuz, won't you think about these?

JAMES WONG WING ON is chief analyst of Strategic Analysis Malaysia (SAM) which produces the subscriber-based political report, [#1]Analysis Malaysia[/#]. James is a former member of parliament (1990-1995) and a former columnist for the Sin Chew Jit Poh Chinese daily. He read political science and economics at the Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While in Sin Chew, he and a team of journalists won the top awards of Malaysian Press Institute (MPI) for 1998 and 1999.