http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330893,00.html

Election Office Bombed in Northwest Pakistan 2 Days Before Vote

A classic example of radical Islamic terrorism that illustrates their agenda is the blood of innocents, isn't it?  What do RITs hate and fear most of all?  The free exercise of Democracy in action.  How can they most effectively be defeated?  By offering that  opportunity to  peoples previously  oppressed under dictators,  secular or religious.  So the Bush 43 doctrine of spreading democracy across the world, offering the oppressed people of the world access to self-determination, is the single most succinct expression of the goals of the War against Terrorism.  Free people don't campaign for office with car bombs.  Totalitarians and fanatics do.

Certainly it means that more than diplomacy will be necessary in some places, though diplomacy is always part of the arsenal of freedom.  War is defined as the use of force to effect the policies of one's government.  If our goal is to advance the cause of freedom-- and I can imagine no more appropriate goal for US foreign policy! --there are those whose access to power is threatened by the free exercise of self-determination by their people, and their opposition to free and fair elections is apparent in their tactics:  mudslinging, untruths, and lawsuits in places where there is an effective rule of law, car bombs and assassinations where there is not.