To the editor:

It is not unusual to learn of several terrorist attacks each day. It sends out a strong signal to the targeted population that the terrorists are alive and well, and whereas you might still be alive that could change in an instant. So, what is the aim of these terrorist attacks? One goal it appears is to increase their importance by having a large amount of media coverage each day. Although it sells advertising the media is paying the terrorists with the coin of free media coverage. And this media coverage, in these times, is global in its reach.

As for the ultimate goal of these terrorists, some are religious in purpose while others seek a political change. To those being injured or killed this makes little difference.

Various solutions are offered and discarded because the solution offends one group or another in its application. The political change seekers are more easily to oppose as their numbers are somewhat concentrated. For the attacks by religious terrorists, the attacks are without boundaries, and the attackers themselves often consist of only a few.

The Phineas Priests come to mind. Phineas Priests originated in the Bible, Book Of Numbers 25: 6-13. They are unique in both their structure and goals. They possess some common traits across ideological boundaries such as: they use violence to defend God’s law, they are involved in bombings and assassinations, and they do not have to be member of a larger organization. One is a Phineas Priest by taking action. In short, a Phineas Priest is a terrorist. We see these actors quite often now in Europe. France, Germany and Belgium come to mind as the most recent examples of these attacks. What makes the Phineas Priests more of a problem is that because of their small discreet makeup they are difficult to infiltrate or to discover. They can, and do, blend in usually rather well.

To confront this new type of attacks we may have to draft new legislation to deal with this problem. How this might be accomplished in the United States is predicated upon what is allowed by our Constitution.

Joseph L. Kibitlewski

Cape Coral