Slate: How to get rid of Us vs. Them

For some reason, I haven't been able to get enough political commentary in the past few days. Here's the latest from Slate, about how to defeat Al Qaeda in the war on terror:

"The way to win this war [agaist Al Qaeda] is to define us and them based on clear principles and resist all divisions based on religion or ethnicity. The central principle we stand for is pluralism, the commitment to a society where people with different beliefs live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty. People who believe in pluralism come from all backgrounds—Christian and Muslim, believer and atheist, Arab and American.

Their central principle is totalitarianism, the conviction that one group should dominate and everyone else should suffocate. Totalitarians are an equally diverse but much smaller population. But there is a somewhat larger group of people who are susceptible to the totalitarian message, especially if they feel like the pluralists have already written them off.

Sun Tzu wrote in the Art of War, "If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." Every time a mainstream Muslim is accused of being a terrorist because of his accent, his beard, or his prayers, we violate our central principle and erode our essential identity. Every time the sacred symbols of Islam are desecrated, we arm the enemy. The sooner we learn this lesson, the faster we win this war."

Read more: Is Your Muslim Doctor the Enemy? How Terrorist Groups Target Middle-class Muslims (Slate)