Watching the fallout after the attempted Christmas terrorist attack, I couldn’t help but think of one of my childhood hobbies: building dams. I loved going down to the creek behind my best friend’s house and backing up the water with whatever rocks, sticks, and mud I could find.

Once it was finished and a modest lake had formed above it, the backside of the dam would inevitably begin to spring leaks. It started as just a trickle here and a trickle there, but before long the leaks would grow and would begin to threaten the dam’s structural integrity. Immediate repairs would be necessary if I wanted to prevent a total collapse that would flood the streambed below.

My first instinct was to throw mud on the backside, where the leaks were emerging. All this accomplished, however, was moving the leak. The water just emerged somewhere else from the dam, usually with a more potent flow. It didn’t take long for me to realize that if I wanted to stop the collapse, I would need to plug the leaks from the frontside of the dam. The key was understanding how water was penetrating the dam in the first place, not in slapping mud on every place it was emerging in a vain attempt to push it back up into the lake.

The same basic concept applies to the effort to prevent more terrorist attacks against the United States. Ever since 9-11, we have seen countless measures analogous to plugging the backside of the dam. From bombing the bejesus out of Afghanistan, to invading and occupying Iraq, to creating two-hour waits at airport security checks, to instituting a ridiculous system of color-coded terror alerts - the entire "War on Terror" has been focused on plugging leaks that will only emerge more potently somewhere else.

And the reason these efforts, even if completely successful, will fail to prevent terrorism is because they don’t repair the frontside of the dam. They don’t address the reasons terrorists want to attack us in the first place. It’s not because "they hate our freedom." They don’t care what we do inside our own borders. They reason they attack, for right or for worng, is because of the way we behave in their part of the world. Here are a few excerpts of a 2002 letter attributed to Osama bin Laden:

Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is very simple:  Because you attacked us and continue to attack us. You attacked us in Palestine… The creation and continuation of Israel is one of the greatest crimes, and you are the leaders of its criminals…

… You attacked us in Somalia; you supported the Russian atrocities against us in Chechnya, the Indian oppression against us in Kashmir, and the Jewish aggression against us in Lebanon…

… You steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices because of you international influence and military threats. This theft is indeed the biggest theft ever witnessed by mankind in the history of the world…

… Your forces occupy our countries; you spread your military bases throughout them; you corrupt our lands, and you besiege our sanctities, to protect the security of the Jews and to ensure the continuity of your pillage of our treasures…

… You have starved the Muslims of Iraq, where children die every day. It is a wonder that more than 1.5 million Iraqi children have died as a result of your sanctions, and you did not show concern…

… These tragedies and calamities are only a few examples of your oppression and aggression against us. It is commanded by our religion and intellect that the oppressed have a right to return the aggression. Do not await anything from us but Jihad, resistance and revenge. Is it in any way rational to expect that after America has attacked us for more than half a century, that we will then leave her to live in security and peace?!!

The point is not whether these grievances are accurate or justified. The point is that they are the basis for the intense anger that is felt toward the United States, and that this anger will continue to breed acts of violence against us no matter how committed we are to the "War on Terror."

Just as no amount of mud slapped on the backside of one of my childhood dams could stop the leaks – neither can the best military efforts, the best intelligence, nor the best homeland security measures stop this desire to disrupt the peace and security of our nation.

The only way we can remedy the situation is by taking action on the frontside of the dam – by understanding how our foreign policy has engendered such abject hatred, and by taking a new direction in the way we use our military and economic power in the world.