The Guardian on how to win the War on Terrorism

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Leader: A chance to change
But new ideas are badly needed. An overall review of "war on terror" strategy is urgently required before yet more ground and lives are lost. It is time to concede that Islamist extremism is the overriding, top-priority threat, not the Baghdad bogeyman. It is time to let the weapons inspectors go back and do their job. It is time to accept that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the main source of tension between the Muslim world and the west and act to resolve it (as Mr Blair urges). It is time to curb the bellicose, petulant nationalism that alienates European and other allies from the US, halt cynical manipulation of the UN, keep promises in Afghanistan and stop conniving in anti-democratic fraud in Pakistan. It is time, say, to use even a fraction of the new US defence budget of $355bn to address the roots of economic and political dispossession in Islam's heartlands, shut (not open) military bases, and show real, not pretended, respect for cultures and traditions not our own.

It is time to understand that erosion of civil liberties, discrimination on racial grounds, stifling of open debate, lies, fear, propaganda and constant threats of violence are not the best way to win what Mr Blair called a war of values. In other words, start again. Rather than just deploring the effects, it is time to tackle causes - for far too much time has already been wasted. Or else sit back and wait for the next disco to blow.