The Foreign Service Journal, September 2004

lance without a warrant, and allows the secret detention of aliens without due process. The U.S. needs extraor- dinary legal means to pre-empt the rare case of the “ticking bomb,” but the Patriot Act goes too far. Of course, terrorism is a serious threat to our security, and potential terrorist access to materials for con- structing and deploying weapons of mass destruction increases that risk. But while we must have strong laws to protect ourselves, we must also protect liberty. If we sacrifice liberty too readily to guard against remote terrorist contingencies, we lose far more than we gain and ultimately weaken our security. Our leaders should use common sense and remember the lesson of history that “if anything goes, everything is soon gone.” Toward a More Effective Strategy Describing our post-9/11 efforts as a “war” against ter- rorism is understandable, given the gravity of the threat and the need for a determined response. But “wars” are eventually won or lost, and terrorism cannot be eliminat- ed or protected against entirely. Nevertheless, we can and must reduce the threat. The Bush administration has made important progress in domestic security, especially in air travel. Border con- trols have also been improved. But heavy-handed, pro- tracted vetting of visa requests, especially those for visitors fromMuslim countries, has discouraged visits by students, tourists and businesspeople. We pay a huge cost in ill will and contacts lost for this. We must recognize, however, that the goal of complete homeland security is unattainable, given the infinite range of targets in the U.S., and the costs in disruption and loss of freedom that would be required. This makes it all the more imperative that we broaden our strategy. Because of the limited utility of military force and its disadvantages in combating terrorism, we must continue to rely most heavily on the traditional tools of intelligence, law enforcement and diplomacy to stop terrorists and apprehend them. The report of the 9/11 Commission points the way toward strengthening these methods. But given the limitations of these tools for pre-empting terrorism, and our inherent vulnerabilities at home and abroad, we need a far more ambi- tious parallel strategy to undermine terrorism at its roots. We must find better ways to reduce the appeal of extremist ideologies that breed ter- rorism so that new terrorists will not emerge and that those who remain at large can be isolated, exposed and apprehended. Having identified the ideological roots of terrorism, we can then bring to bear diplomatic, eco- nomic, educational and other resources. It is beyond the power of the U.S. alone to eliminate or even rapidly change the lack of democracy and human rights, the eco- nomic failure, the ignorance, and the historic and cultural traumas that have fed terrorism in the Arab and Muslim world. But we need to devote far greater wisdom and resources to the task than we have up to now. President Bush’s U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative is a good beginning, but until the war in Iraq and the Israeli- Palestinian conflict are resolved, it is unlikely to gain much traction. A new strategy should also mobilize the experi- ence of European states and their resources. This will require a return to multilateralism and healing wounded relations with our traditional allies. We will also need to communicate more effectively with the people in the Arab and Muslim worlds to restore their friendship and confidence in American goals. Unless these people understand and trust our policies, they will not join us against the terrorists and abandon the false notion that the U.S. is at war with Islam. Thus far, our educational and information programs have been pathetically inadequate to the challenge. This work will take decades, and the legacy of past fail- ures will not be overcome soon. In the shorter term, the most important policy initiative the U.S. could take would be to renew American leadership in the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Nothing has done so much to anger and alienate Arabs andMuslims as the per- ception that the U.S. favors the policies of settlement expansion and domination of the Palestinians pursued by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and is indifferent or hostile toward Palestinian rights for freedom in a viable state of their own. Bin Laden and other terrorists have exploited this issue brilliantly. But even without their F O C U S 34 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 4 Arab media, like Al- Jazeera, are all too willing to exploit civilian deaths caused by U.S. forces to inflame popular emotions and create sympathy for the terrorists.