Administration Unveils New Counter Terrorism Strategy

The President’s updated national strategy for combating terrorism, dated September 2006, offers a new vision for “protecting and defending the Homeland, the American peoples, and their livelihoods.” In the overview to the 23-page strategy, President Bush states, “This updated strategy sets the course for winning the War on Terror … and incorporates our increased understanding of the enemy.” The strategy goes on to note that “effective counterterrorist efforts, in part, have forced the terrorists to evolve and modify their ways of doing business.” But, it adds, “Our understanding of the enemy has evolved, too.” The key long-term approach to combat terrorism is still “advancing effective democracy.”