The war on terrorism is something of a joke. On the one side we have fanatics striking back at the west in some type of arab/muslim nationalism. On the other side, we have western governments trying to do business with dysfunctional middle eastern countries.

The fanatics are idiots- apparently incapable of launching successful attacks against innocent citizens and the infrastructure they rely on. They can't win- even these acts are designed more to provoke than anything else- they really can't hurt us- even when they fly planes into buildings.

At the same time, there seems to be an endless supply of them- almost as though they were manufactured by these dysfunctional regimes. Whether they are our allies like Saudi Arabia, or our enemies like the Iranians, they hate the west- muslim prejuidice against outsiders is their rallying cry.

I don't see a future in this, dogging the terrorist plots- no matter how feeble they are. Until we stop the muslims from making this into a war against the west, they are winning, because it won't stop.

A muslim who advocates violence against westerners is a bad muslim. Yet it muslim countries, this type of thinking is condoned and nourished. Until that stops the west has a problem.

The joke is we wouldn't be dealing with then at all if they didn't have oil in the ground. We tolerate a great deal from them in order to get the oil- non-interference in their internal affairs no matter how backwards or dysfunctional they are, no matter how this dysfunction results in violence against the west.

The only way to change this is to put pressure on these muslim countries to change their ways- or eliminate them with superior force, otherwise they will keep sending terrorists into the west. You can't win unless you can make them stop.

A problem isn't a war.

All successful empires (and the west is an empire make no mistake about it, economic primarily, but its an empire) have faced terrorists. Look up where the term zealot came from. (hint it came during an empire that had no qualms about 'eliinating' nations with superior force).

The west can't win by "making" anyone do anything. The west can win exactly as the article described - by essentially shrugging off these acts as the mosquito bites they are. Consider even 9/11. While it was visually shocking and had measurable economic impact, the reality is that in the USA, a new 9/11 worth of deaths occurs EVERY MONTH - the cause? mundane speeding and DUI. Something we as a society have been shrugging off month after month for decades.

The west wins the way Muhammed Ali won - by simply being resilient enough that we take any and all punches thrown at us without even stumbling. And if we strike, we strike in a manner that is very precisely tailored. Not like the idiocy that is iraq

The only country's government I can think of that is blatantly out there attempting to promote hatred of the U.S. is Iran's, and they were pushed into it by us. You can't expect them to sit there and say nothing when you call their country part of an "axis of evil". You can't expect them not to do the only thing that seems to keep your country from invading the countries that you put on that list, either.

Your baloney about the Saudi government advocating this is false. It is the same for the other countries you mention. The recruits for terrorists are not being found through governments or their actions, they are being found in universities in the west and in political groups that form. They are being found among victims of our mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan when we target a place with bad intelligence or do some other stupid thing.

We aren't fighting countries when we fight terrorism, or we have the wrong target. Terrorist organizations aren't countries. They are underground and non-governmental. The only place where they were more above ground and had something to do with government was Afghanistan, where they basically owned the Taliban.

Not going into panic and fear is useful, but we have to do more than just shrug. We have to start fighting smart. That means with infiltration of the organization(s) involved, not invasions or attacks on countries. Governments aren't really a good target in this fight, with the sole exception of Afghanistan's, which is the only one put in place by the terrorists..

place by the terrorists". The Taliban were the only government put in place and propped up by terrorists.

allyra, oh please...

If you are so anxious to "westernize" muslim countries, feel free to enlist and actually take part in your crusades as opposed to simply advocating them.

How telling that your definition of a "bad" or "good" muslim rests upon whether he advocates violence against westerners, but then that's the attitude I would expect of an imperialist towards his subjects or those he wishes to subject.

Muslim governments may spout anti-Western rhetoric in much the same fashion as Western politicians invoke god, family and country, but both understand the uses of money and power, and both would not do anything to jeopardize either one. The Muslim middle classes, like middle classes everywhere, want education, stability, and access to free-market goods. The key to all these is peace and cooperation between nations, including Western ones.

Warmongers on either side serve only their own interests and the interests of their enemies. Unfortunately for some Muslims, our warmongers have control of the most powerful economy and military this world has ever seen. The Muslims should be so lucky. But then that would make our freedom fighters the terrorists, wouldn't it?

Who said I want to westernize them? Their laws and institutions are theirs and they have every right to them. The problem is the outcome of these laws are sometimes negative, and the west is blamed for them, even though we had nothing to do with the laws.

Somehow the West had become the great satan, the root of all evil and suffering in the muslim world. Somehow, killing innocents in the west furthers their aims as good muslims.

Pardon my subjectivity, but anyone who wants to kill someone simply because they don't believe in the same way is my enemy!

It's not a matter of being western, it's a matter of respecting differences and tolerating them. Americans and Europeans don't sit around trying to figure out ways to harm muslims. All they want to do is get the oil they need cheaply.

On the other hand, there are muslims who do sit around, planning ways to hurt the US and Europe, not in any specific way, but in ways that are spectacular and attract media attention.

That IS a problem, and since they are foreigners in other countries doing this we have to choose between supporting and dealing with these countries, or realizing that their political situation is such that those who seek to harm westerners are in positions of power.

The ones who wish to harm the west are not rational. There is no redeeming quality to any of them, and they are a significant threat to life in the West.

There can be no peace with people who don't want it. You either let them win, or destroy them. And, don't kid yourself, anti-western islam is being supported by some Arab governments. Many of the 911 terrorists were native Saudi's. The government gives money to muslim leaders, who in turn preach a virulant anti western form or religion.

Now, does this mean the Saudi government is our enemy- giving money and support to anti-westerners in their own population? YES, IT DOES!

So western or not, the Saudis are dealing with the west with a form of duplicity. On the one hand, they have gotten wealth and power out of their relationship with the west, and on the other they use some of that wealth to fan the flames of ignorance against us.

They are racist, repressive and anti- self determination. This is not opinion, this is observation.

The current status quo is not tolerable. In order to bring about change the west must change the way it deals with the Arab world. As long as they tolerate or support those in their world who wish to harm us, they are complicit with our enemies, and should be dealt with as such. If that means imposing western style democracy on them so be it.