1,2,3, WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?

Melissa Boyle Mahle, former CIA ops officer, offers wisdom on the War on Terra, saying, "You can't kill an ideology."

And JOSCHKA FISCHER, the foreign minister of Germany from 1998 to 2005, says that in the midst of this nebulous war, we must not forsake our values.

We know that Islamic extremists celebrate death through martyrdom, and the killing of innocents. But what are we in the West fighting for?

We fight for our values: for our freedom, for democracy, for the rule of law, the equality of all human beings and for peace. In this context, Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and the situation in Iraq could hardly be called successes. Against the new totalitarian challenge of Islamic extremism, we have to defend our values; and this means sticking to the values of our democratic societies, even under fire.

Tags: war on terror, Al Qaeda