A New “Manhattan Project” for an entirely different reason!
October 2001
keep thinking that if we can put a Manhattan Project together to build an atom bomb, we should also be able to put together the brightest (ten to twenty) people in the world to deal with the entire issue which foments or culminates in terrorist acts. Millions were donated by the huge corporations and trust groups toward the rebuilding of a new trade center in New York. A small percentage of those millions could provide the setting, the salaries, and the support for a some of the brightest people on earth to deal with the issue. This group should include people who live in the Middle East and who have demonstrated profound understanding, compassion, respect, and scholarship. It should include leaders from politics, religion, education, economics, but mostly those who clearly understand the history and the current social dynamics of the region.
Members of the group must commit to one thing only, finding a way to remove terrorism from the world, no matter the cost and no matter history or the politics.
It should include women, for our patriarchal world has not done well and it's time to see even greater leadership from women. It should also include military representatives, for the possibility exists that some terrorist groups exist because they can, not because of a cause based so much in sociological need but because criminal acts have somehow always been a part of the human experience. A military solution was the only answer to Hitler and we must be prepared for the use of the military for protection and, yes, even force when dealing with such madness.
On the surface, it would appear that all efforts for reconciliation, peace, and an end to terrorism around the world, but especially in the Middle East, have (at least in the high profile area) been handled by "amateurs." I say "amateurs," for the leaders who deal with the problem are often either elected or appointed to their jobs, jobs where often the issues of peace in the Middle East or terrorism are only minor parts of the position description. Election to an office doesn't automatically qualify one for deep thinking on a subject. People who rise to power through military means in the Middle East don't automatically qualify as deep thinkers on the subject. For such a person to qualify as an objective thinker would certainly be a rare thing. Nevertheless, all of these entities should have representation in our mythical think tank, for each shed light from another facet of the problem.
This is not a time for knee-jerk reactions, no matter how painful the knee. It is time, however, for the brightest people on earth to devote one-hundred percent of their time to dealing with a problem which may very well continue to hold the world hostage for decades. These people should be given all possible support, facilities, technological and human. They should be paid what it takes to make it possible for them to leave what they're doing now in order to focus entirely on this issue for as long as it takes.
The urgency of the original Manhattan Project, started officially in 1942, was based in the fear that the enemy might be ahead in the race for this hugely destructive weapon. How ironic that a New Manhattan Project should be surrounded by so much fear and that such fear permeated the nation from Manhattan itself on September 11, 2001. I’m fully aware that most of the work by members of the original Manhattan Project was done in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Call such a new effort by any convenient name, but how wonderful that such a New Manhattan Project could hold profound hope for the entire world!