Defeating Terror: The Word is Mightier than the Sword

The fundamentalist Islamic riots against Danish and Norwergian embassies over political cartoons should a loud wake up call to the West. The riots clearly demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of the liberal democratic virtues of freedom of speech and the paramount importance of the separation of church and state. Without that right and that seperation, the beliefs of some will inevitably weigh heavy aginst the beliefs of others. But with the right and separation intact, a peaceful balance is maintained --and all for the reasonable price of a stiff upper lip against some things that we might find offensive. Isn't that the sacrifice asked of us in a liberal democracy?

And so I put the case to you that the "War on Terror" is really a war on ignorance. The only true way to bring the war to an end is through education. Despite how furiously some may wish to deny it, secular education was the very bread and butter of our Forebearers --of you, my dear Gentlemen. And as you certainly know, indeed since the time of Socrates himself we have known, that without such an eduction of the populace a democracy simply can not stand.

Secluar education is not wide spread in the Middle East. Instead theocratic schools dominate their cirriculum with the teachings of a single ideology.

From this basis then, I offer a long-term plan for true democratic liberation, and from it our own ensured secruity. It will take about 40 years to take deep effects on the region, at about which time the process will begin to snowball, and grow on its own.

Roughly spaking, this how it would work.

First we need to simplify security requirements in the region. There is an acient remedy for this need: city walls. Simple and effective. Afghanistan is the appropriate place to begin. Start with Kabul and work our way out to other towns. Within these walled "safe zones" establish secular education facilitates for all age levels. Enroll people living in the city but also bring volunteers in from outlying areas. Children can go to school full time, while parents attend part-time yet remaining gainfully employed. Train of these students to be teachers themselves, so they can eventually return to their home towns and carry on the important progress of modern education.

Let us not forget that this education is NOT against Islam. It was the Middle East peoples themesleves that preserved the cannon of this knowledge during the Wests own dark ages. It is their knowledge as much as it is ours. They have simple lost sight of it in a fashion much like we had, and now it is our task to return it. Islam will still remain, it is simply that the mid-east peoples will now find a purer, liberal Islam under the hard exterior of todays radical Islam. And it is this occurance alone that can save us all.