To be successful in the war against terror, it is necessary to understand the enemy and his strategies, how he forms his alliances and how he shapes his tactics to achieve his goals.

In President Bush's first address to Congress after 9/11, he correctly identified the forces that attacked us as "the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century," who followed "in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism." The religious roots of the present threat are radical Islam, but its politics are the familiar strategies of the Cold War Communist left.

THE COMMUNIST AGENDA: In the 1930s, the Communist movement devised a strategy for weakening and subverting democratic societies, which changed the nature of revolutionary politics forever, and profoundly increased the threat that revolutionaries posed. Until then, the Communist parties had openly declared their revolutionary agendas, which were anti-Western and anti-democratic, and required illegal and criminal means to achieve. Communists were for the "dictatorship of the proletariat" and intended to achieve this dictatorship through a "civil war" in the western democracies. Their primary agenda of course was to provide "frontier guards" to defend the Soviet Union and its dictatorship, because that was the revolutionary base. But openly declaring their Communist agendas insured that they would be and remain a fringe minority in democratic societies, and that is what happened.

THE POPULAR FRONT: Then, in 1935, the Communist parties adopted a new tactic, which they called the Popular Front. The agendas of the Popular Front were framed in terms of the fundamental values of the societies the Communists intended to destroy. In place of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" and an "international civil war," the Communists organized coalitions for "democracy, justice and peace."

Nothing had changed in the philosophy and goals of the Communists, but by advocating (or seeming to advocate) "democracy, justice and peace," they were able to forge broad alliances with individuals and groups who had no inkling of their true agendas or - in any case -- believed them to be less sinister and dangerous than they were. Working through the Popular Front they had formed with "liberal" groups, the Communists were able to hide their conspiratorial activities, form "peace" movements, and increase their own numbers until they became a formidable political force.

THE CURRENT "PEACE" MOVEMENT: Many observers of the current "peace" movement that has been launched in America and the West to oppose efforts to disarm Saddam Hussein have been puzzled at its rapid growth, size and elaborate organization. They wonder how this "peace" movement could fail to call on Saddam to disarm, express such deeply cynical views of America's motives ("blood for oil") and identify the United States itself as a terrorist state and the threat to peace. The answer is that the organizers of the peace demonstrations are veteran Communists and the movement itself is an exemplary expression of the strategy of the "popular front."

On March 5, a nationwide student protest was organized by the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition. At Stanford University, to pick one site, hundreds of students went on "strike" and 26 Stanford professors cancelled their classes in sympathy with the strike.

The National Youth and Student Peace Coalition has a website (www.nyspc.net) where the Stanford organizers of the strike are plainly listed (www.nyspc.net/strikelist.html) as the Stanford Labor Action Coalition and the Young Communist League - the youth branch of the Communist Party, U.S.A. Clara Webb, the president of the Stanford Young Communist League is listed as the contact person for both organizations.

RADICAL ISLAM AND THE "PEACE" MOVEMENT: In the leadership of the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition are not only Communists, but radical Muslims. Andy Burns, spokesman for the Coalition told the Washington Times, "The way the student peace movement has worked since September 11 is we've formed coalitions on most campuses. The Muslim Student Association is usually, if not most of the time active because Muslims are a target population."

In fact, it is Americans who are the target population. Radical Muslism are the terrorists who attacked us. The idea that America is the world aggressor - the Great Satan - is the quasi-religious belief that forges the alliance between atheist Communists and religious fundamentalists. The strategy of the Popular Front - proclaiming its goals as "peace" and "justice" -- is the deception that hauls in the rest.