You've probably seen this scene in the movies: the hero(es) shoot/slice/smash the monster(s), but instead of a dead monster there now are two live ones attacking. The War against Radical Islam can feel like this. We kill the fighters, capture or kill some of the leaders, and the attacking swarm seems to grow. So, how do we win? Or, to put it more broadly, how do we respond to the threat?

One option is to pretend the monster does not exist. If we walk quietly, dismiss the testimony of those who claim to have seen the monster, and live an ordinary non-threatening-to-anything life, then all will be well. You know how that turns out in the moview: that guy gets eaten/killed/turned into a mutant. In real life it is difficult to imagine a different alternative. Western civilization is an affront to devout Muslims especially for being non-Muslim. Islam sees the world as the Realm of Submission (Islamic) and the Realm of War (everywhere else). Muslims are under religious compulsion to turn the entire world into the realm of submission to the glory of Allah (if Allah wills). Christians and Jews traditionally are allowed a place in the Realm of Submission as second-class citizens, as dhimmis, but are to be made to feel subjected. Pretending there is no threat will not make the threat go away.

Another option is to resist, but to dismiss the idea of winning and try for a draw. If we can just contain the monster in the swamp, then life can go on elsewhere. The broad historical context for the current war is the nearly 1400 year long war between Islam and everyone else. The Middle East was Christian until conquered, as was North Africa, and Asia Minor (where Turkey now is). Spain was conquered, but won back its freedom in the reconquista. Western Europe preserved its freedom with decisive victories in southern France and Austria, and hung on through long centuries of back and forth warfare in the Mediterranean especially Sicily and the Italian penninsula. Greece eventually was liberated. We could simply try for a draw, fighting to preserve what we have. But, in the movies the monster usually will not be content merely to stay in the swamp; and in real life Islamic ideology demands imperialism. (cont.)

A third option is to take the fight to the monster--enter the swamp, crawl into the cave, walk into the bloody house. This is a dangerous course; usually many of those who undertake the expedition will not be alive for the final credits. GW Bush has chosen this option, go after the monster in its lair: liberate Afghanistan, liberate Iraq, make these nations into free-market democracies: plant our own spreading Blob in the heart of Islam and eventually transform the monster into an ally. After all, wasn't that the way we did it with Germany and Japan? NO. Germany and Japan were transformed only after thorough military defeat. The monsters of Nazism and Japanese Shinto Militarism were killed, then those lands were transformed--the swamp drained, the cave lighted with guided tours, the bloody house cleaned and put on the market. Spreading democracy attacks the monster indirectly, and may not hurt it at all (see the Palestinian elections).

So long as radical Islam (by which I mean Islam that takes the Quran and the example of Muhammad seriously) exists, shooting/slicing/smashing will not solve the problem ultimately, more monsters will arise. So what to do? How about we truly carry the fight to the monster's den. What if we got serious about muting the radical clerics operating in the West? What if we got serious about Saudi sponsorship of radical clerics everywhere? How? Perhaps we could sow discord--some Muslims do not recognize other groups as true Muslims because they hold their fingers "wrong" during prayer--how about we inject questions and arguments in the Muslim lands (hat tip to Arthur C. Clarke). Assassinations? Why not? especially if the CIA can get Islamic dissenters to kill the "heretical" imams. Why isn't the Voice of America doing all it can to debunk Islam? Will these steps solve the problem? Not by themselves. But, as long as serious Islam is a thriving ideology, monsters will be created.