If civilization hopes to prevail against the terrorist thugs and the massive populations in whose names they act, we need to attack their core ideologies, in much the same way that we attacked the Soviet mindset during the Cold War.

The United States, and our allies, insisted that the Soviet perspective was fundamentally flawed because:

(1) Command and control economics, with its top-down, governmental planning of production and consumption is inefficient at best, and it stymies innovation, distorts investment, and discourages growth. Free people enjoy a more prosperous life.

(2) Communism and individual liberties are at odds. Liberate people from constraints and theyll make far better decisions than a government can make, and people will be happier through self-determination.

(3) Communism crushes true spirituality, injecting bureaucracy into matters of individual faith and personal preference.

We need to devise a set of postulates that directly confronts the weaknesses in, and the threats posed by radical terrorist fundamentalism.

One of our targets should be the practice of martyrdom. As long as Islam is interpreted as supporting and calling for martyrs, well be plagued by suicide bombings, and perhaps truly threatened for the first time by nuclear destruction.

During the Cold War, each side possessed mutually assured destructive means at its disposal. Knowing this, discouraged each side from being first to pull the trigger.

Unlike America and the Soviets, radical Islamists perceive nuclear self-immolation as justified, philosophically. If they bury their own kind, they believe theyre all going to be rewarded in paradise, in the afterlife.

Their would-be martyrs need to be tirelessly and systematically vilified, not celebrated, and our propaganda efforts need to be aimed directly at this threat.

Essentially, we need to argue, through various means and techniques, that martyrdom is stupid, meaningless, and criminal.

Only then, can we hope to truly create a safer world.