A Modest Plan for the War on Terror

Many, and frankly not just GOPers, wonder out loud what Democrats would be doing differently than BushCorp™ to fight terrorism.

Now you can suggest 7 point plans and all the grand strategies you like, but let me sum up my feelings as to what Democrats can do to improve on the President's performance.

For one thing we stop doing stupid things. From Reuters:

U.S. Muslim groups criticized President George W. Bush on Thursday for calling a foiled plot to blow up airplanes part of a "war with Islamic fascists," saying the term could inflame anti-Muslim tensions.

U.S. officials have said the plot, thwarted by Britain, to blow up several aircraft over the Atlantic bore many of the hallmarks of al Qaeda.

"We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counter-productive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group.

"We ought to take advantage of these incidents to make sure that we do not start a religious war against Islam and Muslims," he told a news conference in Washington.

And be clear, I'm not just complaining about BushCorp™'s lack of ethnic sensitivity, though that, I suspect is why he says such bonehead things.

My point is this: our most important potential allies in the GWOT are the millions on Muslims who are not terrorists.

Witness the latest UK bombing plot: (Buried in a CNN article, but of critical importance):

Pakistani officials said the arrests of two British citizens and five Pakistanis last week directly contributed to terror arrests made Thursday in Britain. Intelligence sources identified one of the British citizens as Rashid Rauf.

The original information about the plan came from the Muslim community in Britain, according to a British intelligence official. [Emphasis mine-SK]

Given that the weakest link in the US GWOT is a dearth of human intelligence, one of our best hopes for discovering these plots come from the good, honest Muslims, among whom the terrorists choose to hike,

Instead of alienating Muslim communities we should be embracing them (and not just rhetorically) as brothers in arms in this fight.

You want a plan? How's about that for starters.