How to Defeat Al Qaeda

I have felt for a long time that the best way to defeat Al Qaeda (AQ) is by America using its most powerful weapon: the amalgamation of all its soft power. This means, but is not limited to, "Hollywood" movies, network TV shows, all forms of music (rock, rap, folk, etc.), art, philosophy, print journalism, books, satellite broadcasting, cable TV shows, and old-fashioned propaganda.

The messages we send should also run the gamut, and include, but not be limited to, images of Americans defeating jihadists, wholesome American life, freedom, liberty, and anti-AQ ideas and propaganda.

I am not a religious person, but I favor governments which respect the religious or atheistic beliefs of its citizens, since these are deeply personal matters. However, when someone's religious ideology threatens me or my family or my nation, then it is time to fight that ideology. We can begin by pointing out the absurdity of AQ's core beliefs, the insanity of its founder(s), the lack of morals in its adherents. Jihadists want to terrorize us, so their ideology is "fair game" in the War on Terror. After all, it is their ideology which inspires them. Defeating their ideology is analogous to cutting off the head of the snake.

The great irony today is that, whereas "soft power" is our greatest weapon, the jihadists are using it with seemingly more effect than we are. (See today's NY Times article An Internet Jihad Sells Extremism to Viewers in the U.S. By MICHAEL MOSS and SOUAD MEKHENNET.)

It is past time that we get out of Iraq and start fighting the War on Terror the smart way, using our most powerful weapons (soft power) and enlisting as many nations as we can to join us in this new quest.