We as a nation have been here once before. After WWII when expanionist Communism became our biggest threat, the biggest challenge was to understand that Communist doctrine itself dictated no compromise with the West. Only a few people understood this ideology well enough to know that there was nothing we could do to reason with these people, only force counted in their political calculations. Once we understood that (except the liberal leftists never did get it) we developed a policy to deal with it -- George Kennan's policy of containment and waiting for the inevitable collapse of Communism from within.
After 50 years Kennans policy proved correct. We made some mistakes and the ultimate cost to us in lost liberties due to the secret agencies we bred here in America to fight the battle against Communism is still to be calculated, but we need to develop a similar "Grand Strategy" to deal with the worldwide Islamic totalitarian movement.
George Bush sounds at times like he understands this and at other times (like when he is talking about Arafat) he doesn't. Our policy to combat Islamic totalitarianim is still in a floundering stage. The initial strong pressure from the President to whitewash Islam from complicity in this movemement served mainly to delay the moment when we really understood what we are dealing with -- a totalitarian ideology that like Communism contains within it a doctrinaire refusal to co-exist with the West. It also served to remove much needed pressure from Muslim populations to reform their own religion and confront the evil in their midst.
Christianity had to reform its anti-semitic impulses after WWII and it wasn't done by making excuses but by constant confrontation. Islam must be confronted with what it has bred and tolerated in its mosques. Communism claimed to reject religion while it forced its political idelogy on its people as a substitute for religious belief. Militant Islam claims upfront that Allah commands its jihad against non-believers and is therefore even more intractable. It is no use arguing with "moderate Muslims" about what "true" Islam teaches. A religion is what its adherents practice and what they condone by their refusal to confront and reject.
Communism at least held open the prospect of being proved wrong over time -- as it was -- but there is no way to reason with fanatical and violent religious believers bent on imposing God's will except to defeat them. It is time to develop the grand strategy. My suggestions for people who "get it" and should be listened to by our administration in developing this strategy include: S. Huntington, David-Pryce Jones, Victor Hanson and Daniel Pipes.
...with the collectivist anti-semites of Russia and Europe not entirely sure they want to be on our side.