The Best Option
-some think they got lucky and the WOT is best treated as a legal matter, with Osama and Co brought to trial; stop invading other nations.
You left out the only option that makes sense:
I see today's world as if you moved into east Oakland (homicide capitol of the west coast). There are many ways you might think would get 'security" for yourself and your family.
1) One way would be to walk around with your AK-47 daring anybody to say anything. If nobody does, you just pick the ugliest guy and break his teeth out and put the muzzle under his nose.
That might give you a measure of security as long as you never sleep and can watch all your posessions and family members 24/7... which is impossible.
2) The other option is to try to learn to live in the neighborhood, even though you know some of them are drug dealers and low lifes. Show them more respect than they deserve and make them understand you will watch their backs if they do the same for you. It may not be great, but it does give you a way to know who the real threats are and what they are doing so you can be ready.
I see the world is like that and the problem is that gunboat diplomacy is now obsolete. I think to get to a safe place we need to admit we can't police the world. If some countries choose to establish repressive Islamic governments, it's not our job to overthrow them. Their own people have to rise up (aided by our CIA of course). And if they don't, then we accept that some countries choose to remain backward. If it's really bad, their people will leave.
We have to show respect for religions or things that call themselves religions simply because we have not been appointed to judge all things religous and eradicate "false doctrines".
Most important, we need to start following policies that show we understand not all Arabs are alike and not all Islamics are terrorists. If we alienate the entire Arab world, we will get the priviledge of living like the Israelis do: just counting time until the next attack.
That is not inevitable. Most Arabs want what most people want: food, shelter, a decent place to raise a family. Moreover, many Arab countries are simply not strong enough to expel terrorist elements from their countries because a large enough percentage of their population supports them that such an action would cause civil war. Example: Saudi Arabia has been paying blackmail to Al Qaeda for a decade to keep them from attacking their country. In recent months, OBL chose to break the deal because he has all the support he needs from wealthy Saudis. But the point is, the strongest and richest Arab state was not strong enough to stand up to OBL.
Point is, we can work with Arab nations to make them stronger and make them see they will have a better life when they work with us. Most of them are sick of all the terrorists as well, and the only reason those cells exist is because they hate us enough to make them believe it's worth the trouble. We can change that if we choose to.
