While President Bush has proclaimed a "war on terrorism" and taken measured steps in a strategic battle against terrorist groups, especially al Qaeda, American citizens have lived lives far removed from his proclamation. The American people responded to the "act of war" of September 11 with an outpouring of democratic rhetoric and bizarre acts of patriotism. Unfortunately, our proud demonstrations truly ignored the reality of the war that would result. Americans have donated blood and set up funds for the families of firefighters, without looking outside our nation with any intention of understanding the reasons for popular terrorism in Arab and Muslim states. The American public refuses to accept that we are a nation at war because we are fighting a culture of Islamic extremists rather than a tangible state that we can define in our minds. Furthermore, we are at war with a group of people we do not understand and are not inclined to get to know. While the United States government fights a war, using diplomacy, financial traps, and of course, missiles and bombs, the American people must fight a war against our ignorance of the enemy. Furthermore, the American people must fight against the propaganda and war hysteria that surrounds us in our own nation to identify our true role in the war on terrorism. A true victory over terrorism does not lie in a successful military campaign or the destruction of a powerful terrorist network; the real victory lies in a global understanding of Arab culture and the willingness to accept certain values ​​espoused by Arab and Muslim nations. As our nation launches offensives against the Taliban and al Qaeda, we must realize that there will never be a way to militarily or violently defeat every terrorist group in the Middle East, even if our nation succeeds in destroying al Qaeda and deposing the Taliban. . There are simply too many terrorist organizations to effectively combat, due to the popularity of these groups among citizens of Middle Eastern states. The eradication of violent Islamic extremist groups can only occur with the pacification of impoverished, discontented and deeply angry Arabs and Muslims. This is something that we, as private citizens, cannot leave solely to the responsibility of our national government; in fact, this is something our government alone cannot accomplish. The United States will never win a “war on terrorism” if American citizens are not willing to participate in the daily struggle against the socioeconomic and political conditions that breed popularly supported terrorism in Middle Eastern states..