The terrorists attacking Americans today are most often Muslim fundamentalists; you'll also see them called "radical Islamicists." These terrorists and those who give them money and shelter all hate what the United States stands for. It is useful to consider what's behind the hatred, because some people think we can persuade them not to hurt us if we just sit down and explain to them that we're really nice people.

Some of the terrorists and terrorist-supporters are religious fanatics. They would be equally happy killing all non-believers, or killing a lot of them and frightening the rest into becoming Muslims. "The terrorism we practice," said Osama bin Laden in 1998, "is of the commendable kind for it is directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies of Allah."

America is a secular state: our government and religion have been separate for more than 200 years. Everyone is free to choose his own religion--or none. To a religious fanatic, this is an unspeakably evil example for the rest of the world.

Some terrorists and their supporters are not religious fanatics, but "cultural" fanatics. They fear that their way of life will vanish if American ways take over. It is not American military power these cultural fanatics fear. Again, it is our example.

Why? America's economy is based on free trade. Along with the rights to life, liberty and happiness set out in our Declaration of Independence, we also acknowledge the right to property. That means our citizens have the right to earn their living, to keep what they earn and to trade it for goods produced by others. Because of this, the United States has the highest standard of living for the greatest number of its citizens that the world has ever seen. The poverty-stricken shepherds whose way of life the cultural fanatic wants to "preserve" are likely to prefer working in a factory or on an oil rig so they can earn a TV, a computer and enough money to emigrate to the United States. What the cultural fanatic fears and hates is the fact that the United States provides a shining example that many of his fellow citizens freely choose to follow.

Some terrorists and their supporters are powerlusters--the tyrants who have seized control of many Middle Eastern countries by brute force. They fear losing their power not to an American military invasion, but to their own subjects rebelling in favor of freedom and capitalism. It's a lot easier to rule a shepherd than a factory-worker with a TV and a computer. Tyrants such as the rulers of Libya and Iraq sponsor terrorism against the United States because the example of American political freedom makes their subjects restless.

And then there are terrorists and terrorist-supporters who are fanatics not for something, but against everything. The proper name for them is "nihilists"--"nothingists." It used to be difficult to imagine somone dying just for the sake of killing others and destroying their achievements. It's not difficult now, given the image of both WTC towers on fire, collapsing, killing thousands. Notice that no one claimed responsibility. No one issued demands. No one said, "Do this, and we won't attack again." They just wanted to see those towers fall. They just wanted to see those people die.

Religious fanatics, cultural fanatics, powerlusters, nihilists: some say they just have different ideas which we ought to respect. That's a cop-out. You have to judge ideas and their consequences. If you want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then reason, individual rights and capitalism will get you there. Faith, tyranny and statism will not. That makes such ideas evil. To win against these terrorists, you have to know what America's most basic values are, and be willing to defend them, in words and with military force.