Former CIA director James Woolsey supports the idea that "our current struggle against terrorism and rogue regimes" means we are engaged now in World War IV (the Cold War against Soviet Communism being no. 3, which we won). That's a useful way to think about the world today, and pretty much literally true as well.
Victory in this world war will depend not only on our skill in battle and our effectiveness in rolling up terrorist cells. It will depend on our being able to split as many potential adherents as possible away from our main totalitarian enemies: Sunni Islamists (al Qaeda, its fellow travelers and financiers), Shiite Islamists (Tehran's mullahs, Hezbollah), and Syria, Libya, and Sudan (each with a somewhat different ideological cover story to justify oppression). We will not be able to do this by being feckless--a terrorist prosecution here, a cruise missile there. We have tried that, and it brought us Sept. 11. The democracies must rather change the face of the Middle East, as they have changed Europe.
To do so we need to move smartly to make common cause with the many millions of decent Muslims who want to live in freedom and at peace. Today our potential Muslim allies, even in this country, are often silent because they are intimidated by Islamists and theocratic fanatics. But the Muslim equivalents of Walesa, Havel, and Sakharov are out there. They need our help, and we need theirs. To avoid a clash of civilizations and to reduce the need for the clash of arms, we need to forge another alliance for freedom in this war like the one that won World War III.
Posted by Alan at April 18, 2003 11:15 PM