Missing foreign policy element: cost imposition.

The invasion of Afghanistan was the second tiny step taken by the West to educate Official Islam that the long holiday it has enjoyed from retribution for terror was over. The first being President Reagan's attack on Libya, which was wondrously educational to Mr. Gaddafi. Think of it not as peace "keeping" but as peace "disturbing." The false peace of dhimmitude and cowardice, that is.

Time and time again the world witnessed ghastly terrorist incidents and did nothing, other than cut and run that is. This was true even though the role of states like the Soviet Union, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and North Korea in sponsoring or carrying out terror was well known. No external costs were imposed, no revenge was exacted.

Western leaders in the latter half of the 20th century were criminally culpable for failure to act. Iran presents again as an unrepentant terrorist state, as before, but now it is one angling for the capability to inflict nuclear-scale murder and destruction. The jury is still out on whether Mr. Bush and the rest of the West have the stones to act decisively rather than suck their thumbs and twist their hair.

Unaha-closp writes clearly on the desirability of putting a price tag on animal behavior (with apologies to animals everywhere):

At the moment we treat their attacks as annoyances. As if they are deficient people in need of counseling and support - that if they just have all the options put before them they will choose the best one (the choice of peace & profits). Unfortunately they are backed by people you have found a nirvana of profitability that relies upon them crushing rebellion and making war. These people profit from Islam - from the Saudi sheikh & Iranian mullah who use a false ummah to protect them from their subjects to every husband who treats his wife as a possession. They gain nothing from acting to choose peace and so will not choose it willingly.

To make the counseling work and produce a peaceful society requires closing off certain options. Kick out the profitability of their position by imposing costs for their unhelpful actions. Islam can be a "religion of peace" it just needs clear external cost imposed on those who do profit in diverting it from peace.

We leave out the invasion of Iraq as step 3, by the way, because it has more of the look and feel of a personal mission on the part of President Bush than an attempt to teach an object lesson to terrorists everywhere.

It has had many salutary effects that we applaud but there's no getting around the fact that the initial goals of the invasion lacked coherence. "Axis of Evil" was a meaningless phrase from the start, given that Mr. Bush had no intention ever of doing anything about North Korea.

Need for Serious Action." By Unaha-closp, War is for Winning, 12/28/06 (emphasis added).