America Must Not Gamble with its Existence!

World War III is under way. It is not like the first two world wars of the last century. There are no clearly defined nations who have attacked us under their flags as the Japanese did at Pearl Harbor; there are no easily assessed targets to strike back at; no nations to declare war against. Nevertheless, this is a war and it is worldwide. No nation is unaffected by this war. It is taking place "over there" and "right here" at home.

On the one hand, you have religious fanatics who are trying to punish anyone who doesn't subscribe to their brand of god-fearing. These fanatics have not built a civilization worth mentioning; the countries where they have power, prestige, and presence are poor with loathsome living conditions and daily tyranny. Individuals have been arrested in Afghanistan for "laughing in public." Religious police patrol the streets of Iran looking for lipstick and exposed cheekbones.

But these fanatics -- clever, cunning, vicious and absolutely convinced that they are right and righteous -- can destroy. Destroying is easy. Disrupting is easy. Think back to your school days. The classroom needed the cooperation of everyone to run smoothly. The teacher had to teach and every student had to behave him or herself. It only took one creep to cause chaos in the class.

The terrorists are not morons, yet they are doing the same thing. We must realize that such individuals, such groups, do not have the power or will to build up glorious civilizations, great art and literature, or a roaringly good economy, as they once did 800 years ago. Today, they can only disrupt and destroy. They must be stopped before they can get, or rather "force," other Muslims to join them in their jihad or holy war. Make no mistake. The terrorist leaders are trying to create a situation where a worldwide holy war between Muslims and Christians/Jews will become a necessity. Just like that kid who tries to get the marginal students to go along with his idiot antics in class, the terrorist fanatics want to get other Muslims to go along with them.

Obviously America, American citizens, American companies, American principles are the targets. Since this is a war, it must be fought as a war. We must (1) secure our nation as best as possible from attack and (2) completely destroy the terrorists and the governments who harbor them.

The first can be achieved relatively easily, though not perfectly; the second will take some time, money and will.

Here is the successful strategy to win World War III:

1. Close our borders (that means Mexico and Canada and all airports and ports) and let no one from any country that harbors terrorists into America. That includes countries such as Pakistan, which is marginally an American "ally," Algeria, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan, West Bank/Gaza Strip, among others. Terrorists often come into America on work visas, visitor visas, or seeking asylum. Many are from countries which are friendly to America, such as Saudi Arabia. From this point on, America is closed to these people.

It is absolutely true that most people from many of the above countries are fleeing from governments and lifetstyles that they fear and loathe. That is exactly why we want them back in their own countries and not here. These terrorist-friendly regimes survive because good people flee for the freedom of America. That only empowers the evil leaders. Instead, let these same refugees who seek freedom in America, create freedom in their own countries. They are the ones, after all, who can topple these terrorist-friendly regimes, and hand over the terrorists. Obviously, this will take some time but it is a necessity. The ultimate defeat of the terrorists will come when formerly terrorist-friendly governments become the terrorists' terrible enemies.

2. Send home all foreign students from the above countries. No more student visas. Let them go back home and start to create the conditions for a cultural revolution in their own countries. Let them be resistance fighters. If they are lovers of freedom they will fight to save their countries. If they are terrorist sympathizers, why educate them here in America?

3. Arab-Americans must be in the forefront of the movement to defeat the terrorists. Recognizing that there are some Americans who are targeting our fellow citizens of Arab descent en masse as responsible for these first attacks on us, we must show that Arab Americans are standing tall to defeat the enemies of America. It would be helpful, therefore, for the spokespeople of Arab-American organizations to focus more on the "evil enemy" than on their own victimization at the hands of the idiots among us -- especially when being interviewed on radio and television. Let President Bush and the politicians and police handle the vicious attackers of Arab-Americans; let Arab-Americans put on a compete patriotic face. They should not be perceived as just thinking of themselves, they should be perceived as in a united state with all of us.

4. Countries who might be sympathetic to terrorists (Pakistan comes to mind) must be given this ultimatum: Them or Us? If they choose "us," then we must be given access to their countries and all the information about where the terrorists are hiding.

5. All foreign aid to terrorist-friendly nations must be stopped immediately. That means we will end our "humanitarian" 100 million dollars in alms to Afghanistan and to all countries who refuse to give over their terrorists.

6. We should place a substantial bounty on the heads of all known terrorists. Bring in a known terrorist, dead or alive, and the individuals doing so will get a life-changing sum of money.

7. We have to increase funding for our intelligence organizations, both domestic intelligence gathering and foreign intelligence gathering, and give them certain weapons to be effective, such as repeal of the 1976 law that disallows assassination of our enemies. In American neighborhoods where terrorists might be able to blend in, or, unfortunately, be purposely helped and hidden, we must have domestic "spies." These have to be professionals, FBI agents or the like, as we do not want a witch hunt -- except for the real witches.

8. We have to become energy self-sufficient. If we can break the need for Middle-Eastern oil, the American money that finds its way to terrorist organizations from sympathetic mainstream "oil states" and individuals will cease flowing.

9. We must recognize that once the fanatics have weapons of mass destruction, they will not merely be hijacking planes and crashing them into buildings. They will use whatever weapons they develop (nuclear, biological) to cause massive disruption and maximum casualties. From this moment on, America must have an ironclad policy of destroying all weapons factories in all countries that harbor terrorists. Yes, we might sometimes mistakenly hit a "baby-formula" factory as we once did in Iraq, but such mistakes will be made. So what? Horribly enough, some of the weapons they are developing could be set off by lone individuals anywhere in America, which is all the more reason for not allowing entrance to certain nationals.

10. We shouldn't shy from using our apocalyptic power on countries that prove to be complete enemies. As with Germany and Japan after World War II, we can help rebuild the countries we destroy -- rebuild them in our own image -- once we win World War III.

To do anything less than the above suggestions is to gamble with the very existence of America.