The War on Islamic Terrorism:

1. SURRENDER:

Islam's stated mission-- and to Muslims, their manifest destiny-- is to convert the entire world to Islam; we could dispense with this entire war just by becoming Muslims and being done with it. Bow our heads before their hateful god, and accept our fate.

2. APPEASEMENT:

We could try buying them off by giving them what they say they want: let them wipe Israel off the map and indulge their appetite for murdering Jews; set up shariah courts as a parallel legal system here in the US; teach Islam in our public schools; give special rights to Muslims in America; increase Muslim immigration; increase foreign aid to Muslim countries; open up a "dialog" with the Islamists to promote "mutual understanding"; try diplomacy; whatever. Be nice enough to them, and maybe they'll stop attacking us.

3. IGNORE THE ATTACKS:

We could try to just ignore atrocities like the Islamic attacks on 9/11 and in Madrid, London, Bali, Israel and Beslan, and chalk such things up as the necessary price for coexisting with Islam. They're violent savages, and we may as well get used to getting hit every so often.

4. ISOLATE OURSELVES:

We could try withdrawing from the rest of the world and its troubles, keeping our heads down and maintaining a low global profile. Stop the de facto exportation of American/Western culture, if that is what's driving them nuts. And whatever shitstorm breaks loose, just ignore it.

5. CRIMINAL PROSECUTION:

We could go back to the "Law Enforcement Approach": treating Islamic terrorism as a purely criminal matter just like we did during the Clinton administration, hunting down terrorists who attack us and prosecuting them for their crimes-- but only AFTER they've committed them. The Democratic Party has been making it increasingly clear that this is their preferred approach: the "civil liberties" crowd loves it, and it makes lots of work for lawyers and judges.

6. LIBERATION & REFORM:

We can do what we're doing right now in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is trying to see if Arab/Islamic society can be detoxified by introducing democratic self-governance. Maybe it can; maybe it can't. We'll see.

Frankly, the results don't look very promising so far; but barring some catastrophe we'll keep trying there at least so long as Bush is in office. After that, though, people are going to insist on coming to conclusions and I suspect many will conclude that liberation and reform of Islamic society is not going to quell the Islamic tendency toward violence.

7. DOMESTIC OPPRESSION:

We could try to prevent terrorist attacks by turning America into a police state, complete with intrusive government monitoring of all aspects of our lives and the suspension of habeus corpus. Anyone even suspected of terrorist activity or radical Islamic sympathies simply disappears in the middle of the night along with their entire family. People live in constant fear of the authorities.

NOTE: this is what the "Law Enforcement Approach" will morph into when it proves ineffective.

8. CONQUEST & SUBJUGATION:

We could invade Muslim countries, execute their political and religious leaders, outlaw Islam and bulldoze their mosques, and rule them all with an iron fist. Conquer them, rule them, and extirpate the Islamic menace by force.

9. INTIMIDATION / DETERRENCE:

We could respond to terrorist attacks on American soil with extravagantly disproportionate retaliation against the cities and infrastructure of the Muslim world: kill a thousand of us, and we'll kill a million of you. Repeated often enough, and brutally enough, this might eventually deter them from further terrorist attacks.

10. EXPULSION & QUARANTINE:

We could outlaw Islam within the U.S. and expel all Muslims, citizens or not. Forbid entry into the U.S.-- even for brief visits-- to all Muslims regardless of their country of origin and to all nationals, regardless of religion, from countries that are predominantly Muslim. Seal the Canadian and Mexican borders tight with orders to shoot to kill, and NOT bother asking questions later.

11. EXTERMINATION:

We could end this 1,400 year struggle between Islam and the West once and for all, with a war that would last barely a half-hour: simply nuke the entire Islamic world and then let our descendents inherit the guilt from murdering a billion people.