The Committee on the Present Danger

Clifford May writes about a bi-partisanship attempt to inform the public about America's enemies. Democrats US Senator Joe Lieberman, former Clinton CIA director James Woolsey and Republican US Senator Jon Kyl have decided that current national security challenges require Americans to unite in order to win the war on terror.

Could the bad guys defeat us? Senator Kyl believes that is conceivable -- if the terrorists succeed in their "strategy to terrorize, demoralize and divide America and its allies." Sen. Lieberman noted that Scoop Jackson recognized the reality of terrorism as far back as 1979, when he described it as a "modern form of warfare against the liberal democracies."

Ambassador Woolsey suggested that it has been difficult for Americans to respond to terrorism in part because "the terrorists say they are motivated by religion and Americans tend not to question other people's religions."
But those fighting what they describe as a jihad – a holy war -- against the U.S., he added, "have as much to do with Islam as Torquemada had to do with the Sermon on the Mount."