But president Bush is absolutely right. We cannot make this into a Crusade, or we become like them. We must simultaneously recognize the full potential of Islam to be "perverted" as Rice says it is when terrorists use it for their aims, and encourage the moderate side of it, as does Daniel Pipes.
There's famous saying: Trust but verify.
There are a lot of interesting problems this war presents to an advanced society. I'd just like to say that guarding our borders, limiting immigration, and tracking down those who have made threats to us overseas are now more important than ever. And I think we need to make sure that the State Department isn't overconfident again, like it was in Vietnam.
None of this is going to be easy, and before it is over, we will be forced into moral dilemmas the likes of which we had never expected to resolve. We need to figure out how we will respond ahead of time so that we don't make the situation worse with whatever we do. President Bush is obviously paying attention to these problems very carefully.
Will we be able to trust any other candidate next time around? Not that I can tell.