For this reason the three groups believe the United States works closely with those that they wish to eradicate. In addition the groups can easily infiltrate the nation and set up terrorist plans in this country because of the freedom of travel that has been allowed until recently. The United States should never negotiate with any terrorist group with one exception. If the terrorist group wants to work to dismantle itself and begin to reeducate its members to release their terrorist mindset the United States should be willing to work with the group to facilitate such goals. When it comes to acts of terrorism however, the United States should stand strong and refuse to ever negotiate with them for any reason at all.

If the United States wavers and negotiates with a terrorist group, for any reason, it will set the precedent for future attacks in the hopes that the United States will be willing to negotiate again.

While much of the world's attention has been on the United States war on terrorism and the search for bin Laden it is important to remember that religiously-based conflicts have occurred for many years.

One such conflict is that of the Kurdish people.

The PKK has been considered the strongest revolutionary group for many years in the ara. The Kurdish population at this time is 25 million strong and it is mostly located in Syria, Iraq and Turkey. The region is called Kurdistan. Approximately 85% of that population is Sunni Muslim by religious faith.

The Kurds are persecuted worldwide as they become a nomadic people searching for a place to call home. The Turkish army alone has burned thousands of the Kurdish villages and refused to allow Kurds to sing or speak in their native language, instead insisting that they are taught to speak Turkish.

Tens of thousands of people have died in what is coined Kurdish conflict.

The PKK is the largest militant styled Kurdish organization that has a mission to protect Kurdish culture, tradition, language and people with whatever means possible and necessary.

The people who have a stake in the Kurdish conflict are of course the millions of displaced Kurds as well as the Islamic residents who reside in Turkey, Iraq and other nations. The primary nations who are involved with the conflict are Turkey and Iraq and Syria because each of their populations are Kurdish by at least 15%.

The objections of the conflict include the desire by the Kurds to speak their language and teach their children about their culture, history and traditions. They would ultimately like to become a nation of their own. In the conflict they are constantly having to fight to maintain their culture and the right to teach their language, beliefs and traditions to their children while living in borrowed lands.

The Turkish, Syrians, Iraqis and others that have been forced to give up their land for the Kurds to reside often resent their presence and their beliefs and they fight officially and individually to make the Kurds conform to their new residence and nation.

For one to understand the plight and problems of the Kurdish people one only needs to study the history of the Native American. Much like the Native Americans many years ago, today's Kurds are being stripped of their identity without cause.

I believe that the Kurds are deserving of their own nation-state but I also believe it goes more deeply than whether or not they deserve it. There is so much unrest surrounding the conflict while the Kurds fight to maintain who they are, and their host nations fight to strip them of it that allowing them to have some designated land and become their own self-governed nation would go a long way to bringing lasting peace to those regions.

Providing them with an area to set up as a nation would allow the conflicts to come to a halt. It is something they deserve as they try to preserve their language and history for their children and something that would answer the problems being encountered with the borrowed residential lands that they currently occupy in that area of the world.

Osama bin Laden has several key issues. The main focus of his life is to lead his followers in what he believes is a campaign against anyone who is non-Islamic. He has targeted the United States as a classic example of what he tells his followers is the fate of evil Christian capitalists and their greed and deceit. Pointing to the westernized traditions and the freedom...

He has created an especially hostile attitude toward those who are from the United States.
In recent years there have been several attacks that have been attributed to Al Qaeda, which is the militant group led by bin Laden. The attacks that are most well-known that have been attributed to AL Qaeda include the first attack of the towers which happened more than a decade ago. At that time a bomb was planted under the building and exploded however, the buildings failed to come down as they had been planned to do. The next attack in NYC happened at the towers again but this time it was an attack that gained worldwide attention. The attack of 9-11 using commercial airline planes filled with civilian passengers that were plowed into the towers during business hours will never be forgotten. It sparked a worldwide anger at bin Laden and created the support that President Bush needed to wage a war on terrorism using billions of United States dollars and hundreds of thousands of United States military troops.

America has many options when it comes to combating bin laden. One of the most important things that it can do is increase homeland security as it has been doing since the 2001 attacks on the towers. With increased security at public transportation areas, government buildings and other key possible targets the chances of another attack will be greatly reduced.

The next thing the United States needs to do is to work with other nations to form an alliance that will band together in the fight against bin Laden and his terrorist group.

The third thing that the United States can do to combat bin Laden is to pay informants that will help infiltrate the group that he leads and bring back information about their next plans.

The final thing that should be done to combat bin Laden is every time one of his leaders or followers is arrested they should be brought to trial quickly and given the most harsh and longest punishment available for the crime that they committed.

One of the problems with this group is the fact that they do not fear consequences. They do not fear death as they believe they are dying for the cause of God and the betterment of eternity. They also are taught that if they die for the cause then their families will be taken care of in a better standard and quality of life than would have happened had they remained alive.

The United States cannot use logic to combat these beliefs. If it were possible to punish their family members when they committed acts of terrorism it might be the one thing that would reduce their willingness to take part in attacks against the United States.

While making peace with the organization may be possible at a future date, I believe there is currently to much hatred by the members towards Americans for that to be possible. Also, as long as bin laden is alive and not captured he will continue to pump up anti-American sentiment. Once he is captured however, and sent to prison I believe there will eventually be a chance to make peace with that organization and perhaps turn it toward positive community actions on a worldwide basis and affecting changes through non-violent and legal methods.

I believe the most important instruction America can have for counterterrorism is to not exist in a vacuum and anger so many populations worldwide that we are on our own when attacks happen.

I believe that for now, the borders need to be closed and anyone who is here illegally needs to be deported as soon as possible. Then we need to implement stringent rules about immigration and stick to them at all costs to know who enters the nation and what they do once they get here.

I would encourage the president to begin building friendly relations with nations around the world. In particular the nations that surround the Middle East. This will allow us to have allies in strategic positions when needed. I would also encourage the president to work on changing the world perception of Americans so that it will not be so easy for people like bin Laden to recruit members willing to kill Americans based on our lifestyle.

REFERENCES

Hamas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas

Hizbollah http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah

Militant Islam

http://jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?issue_id=2878