America's Holy War

This paper examines Americas strategic policy to combat terrorism. The author contends that the current national strategy on counterterrorism is strategically flawed because it misidentifies the true enemy the nation faces. He also contends that the Global War On Terrorism GWOT is intrinsically a strategy to combat a tactic used by Islamic Extremists versus focusing on the true enemy, the Muslim people who support this Holy War in the name of Islam. In this paper, the author identifies the strategic flaw of the GWOT as a national strategy, provides an indepth review of the GWOT, reviews the goals and strategy of Islam and Islamic extremism and contrasts them with U.S. goals and strategy, discusses shortfalls in the current U.S. GWOT policy to combat the Holy War, and proposes a new strategy to combat the ideology of Islam and the Muslim support base. A short case study to demonstrate the ramifications of appeasement and misidentification of the enemy is incorporated for historical reference.