terrorists. Islam is the world’s fastest-growing and second-ranked re-
ligion; the Muslim world represents a vast sea of people for terror-
ists to hide in.
In the Vietnam War the challenge was to find the enemy among
a population of 70 million in an area the size of New Mexico. Com-
pare that with searching for a small number of extremists among a
population of more than a billion people stretching across eight
time zones, from Indonesia to Morocco.
The war in Iraq is only an early skirmish in the war on terror.
Even if an ideal outcome results in a democratic government there,
remember that Iraq contains only about 2 percent of the world’s
Muslims. Clearly Iraq is a better place following the war. But this is
not saying much. Any country would be improved by the elimina-
tion of widespread murder of its citizens, not to mention systematic
torture and rape as expressions of government policy. Whether this
improvement wins over the hearts and minds of a significant num-
ber of the world’s billion Muslims remains an open question.
Public awareness that the war on terror will be both difficult and
prolonged has only just dawned. This lack of recognition is re-
flected in forecasts of broad-based improvement in stock prices in
the near future.
Characterizing the War on Terror 25Sep-65 Sep-66 Sep-67 Sep-68 Sep-69 Sep-70 Sep-71 Sep-72 Sep-734005006007008009001000
1100
FIGURE 2.3 Dow Jones Industrial Average during the Vietnam War
Source:Adapted from data from Yahoo.com.