Images bring terror into our homes

To the editor:

Video images taken by terrorists at School No. 1 in Beslan, Russia, have been released. Even with today's mind-numbing barrage of violence in the media, I could not help but be stricken with sadness over the faces of the children sitting on that blood-splattered gym floor. Just knowing that most of those souls were later murdered in cold blood is almost too much to bear.

It made me think of my own daughter, who goes to school every day with very few cares. Those images magnify the truth about global terror. It's real. To us, those faces may be nameless, but they are some parent's object of affection.

Those who think a proactive war on terror is wrong for America and the world need only look at these pictures. Evil does exist in this world, and that evil is not the United States. There is a moral right and wrong, and turning a blind eye to this violence is wrong regardless of the "cultural differences" some say westerners can't understand and shouldn't meddle with.

Those who deny America's responsibility to police the world deny our long-term hope for true world peace. We, and every other civilized society in this world, must unite and root this evil out. As the world grows smaller, so do our borders. We are bound more closely than you think.

TONY SMEE, Cape Girardeau