To answer the question posed in the title of this blog, let's take a look at the last 30 years of American outreach to the Muslim world. Billions of dollars in aid to Egypt and Pakistan, two large and populous Muslim nations. Billions as well to the Palestinians, and two U.S. presidents, Bush 43 and now Obama, at the forefront of pushing for a Palestinian state. Even after 9/11, the U.S. still freely allows Muslims--including refugees from war torn countries like Somalia--to enter its shores at a steady rate. If there is a major earthquake in Pakistan, the U.S. is there with millions in humanitarian aid and supplies. It was the same case in 2004 in the aftermath of the tsunami in the world's most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia. The U.S. saved Kuwait (and quite possibly Saudi Arabia) from Saddam Hussein's tyranny in 1991and did the same 12 years later for the Iraqis themselves, not to mention the Afghans in 2001 (although much of the Left and many Muslims would argue that these actions amounted not to liberation, but to a brutal, imperialistic occupation). After all of those costly goodwill gestures, can Americans honestly say that the Muslim world likes us more? Fogive my pessimism, but it is going to take a whole lot more than closing Gitmo to win in the War of Ideas--athough many on the Left seem to think it will be some sort of magic elixir in our global struggle against radical Islam.