Preventing Terrorist Attacks... How We Can Do Better

OK, I just finished a survey on the Progressive Patriots Fund website on how we can do a better job preventing terrorist attacks...
I participated, and offered my two cents. There are quite a few steps we can take to prevent future acts of terrorism from hitting us in the US...

Here are my suggestions:

1. Revise or repeal the Military Commissions Act, restoring time-honored rights such as habeas corpus. The last thing we need is terrorists using the unfair treatment of Muslim detainees as a way to recruit more disgruntled folks into their ranks.

2. Revise or repeal the PATRIOT Act, and pass legislation that actually deals with protecting the nation, AND NOT just expanding Presidential powers.

3. Implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. See #2.

4. Engage the rest of the world in preventing terrorist acts... Simply threatening other countries has been proven to accomplish nothing (e.g. The Iraq War, and the failed efforts to "force" other nations to join the war effort).

5. Terrorist acts are crimes... Let's treat it that way. By declaring "war" on a tactic, success will never be found. However by taking actions to catch the perpetraitors who commit tese crimes against humanity, as well as taking actions to curb the causes of terrorist acts, we can prevent future terrorist acts.

6. Fix the broken trade regime. One of the nasty side effects of laissez-faire globalization has been the immense inequality in the developing world, with the wealthy riding the wave of prosperity, while the rest of the population is left in the dust with nothing but low-wage jobs in slave-labor-like conditions along with environmental degradation... These folks have become increasingly disguntled with the Western world, and they are blaming us for the many problems of globalization today. We need fairer trade deals, and a global trade regime that addresses economic inequality, labor rights, and environmental stewardship. See #5 (this could very well be a root cause for Islamist terrorism)

7. Become more engaged in helping to solve the Israeli-Palestinean strife. Another reason why many Muslims don't hold the US in such high regards is because they can sense US bias in favor of the Israeli government's whims over the plight of the Palestinean people. We need to help broker a peace deal that promotes the best interest of the Israeli people AND the Palestinean people! See #5 (another possible root cause for Islamist terrorism)

8. Develop an exit strategy to bring our troops home from Iraq. Again, our occupation of Iraq has provided Islamist terrorists with concepts for ad campaigns to recruit more terrorists. We need to find a political solution to the Iraq crisis, because the "military solution" is simply not working. Again, see #5 (yet another new cause for Islamist terrorism)