Hunker down for the long haul. (Terror Watch).(Brief Article)

September 11 and the subsequent anthrax threats are much more profound than we have yet come to grips with psychologically. We were nearly paralyzed by a few envelopes containing anthrax. Imagine if we faced an opponent who had a large quantity of anthrax, such as the 2,300 gallons produced by Iraq, or nuclear capabilities. Imagine if there were 60,000 or 600,000 casualties instead of 6,000.

We have not fully realized how big the tragedy could be in the future. We must think of this fall's airplane and anthrax attacks as precursors to a heart attack. We have been warned. The question is how seriously we are going to take this warning.

We face three kinds of opponents in our war on terror, and they are substantially different. The first opponents are the dictators determined to obtain weapons of mass destruction, like Saddam Hussein. It is madness for us to wait until they prove they have the capability of using these weapons before we take action. We need determined strategies and rules that will not tolerate dictators acquiring weapons of mass destruction. The consequences are simply too enormous.

Second are the international terror organizations. Al-Qaeda is currently the poster child, but Hamas and Hezbollah and myriad other organizations are equally dangerous. The level of naivete about these terror organizations and where and how they operate is stunning.

Third, there is a medieval brand of Islam operating an estimated 11,000 schools, training young men in a set of skills--none of them marketable--guaranteeing they will be economically frustrated. They are told in advance that their frustration will be the fault of the West in general and America in particular. These young men are instructed that they will be morally justified in killing people if their frustration becomes too great. A system large enough to finance and sustain 11,000 schools--not counting mosques, radio stations, etc.--is big. We need a large counter-campaign appropriate to that size of opponent.

During the second World War and the Cold War we realized the importance of winning the cultural argument to achieve moral dominance. That is why Roosevelt and Churchill declared the Four Freedoms. That is why during the Cold War we emphasized a clear dichotomy between freedom and totalitarianism, between good and evil, and reached out across the planet to undergird our side.

We must win the moral campaign ...