Comment Cava?

Mes Chers Amis en France,
Don't worry, I'm not going to afflict you any more with my poor French.  But I would like to drop you a line this Monday morning to tell you that you have been much in my thoughts over the weekend.  I know we've had some differences of opinion vis-a-vis the whole international affairs scene. I really do regret the whole "freedom fries" debacle, I know you don't even want us to call pomme-frittes "french fries" anyway, we 'Mericans can be pretty hot headed sometimes.  The thing was we felt like you didn't have our back about the whole Iraq thing, and we were still reeling from our own day of national hate and fear, a lot like the one you're having now.
If nothing else, you need to know that we are with you, even if our politicians can't always get out of their own way, we totally feel your pain, and right now, people are putting the Tricolor on their facebook profiles all over the place, I did.  It may seem like a small thing, but you have to understand that for Americans, even with all our power, most of us feel utterly helpless when it comes to this terrorism thing, which is why I think we're having such a hard time getting a grip.
So here's a bit of an apology, it turns out that you were maybe kind of right about the whole attempt to re-colonize the middle east, shaky stuff that.  We were too angry to listen to reason at that moment, and now, here we are a decade later still trying to deal with terrorist organizations that have sprung up in the power vacuums that we created.  ISIS and the war in Syria are now lobbing hundreds of thousands of refugees towards Europe, and in that mix are some dangerous elements.  To tell you the truth though, in the long run this whole mess is a lot more dangerous than a few wolves hiding among the fleeing sheep.  This whole scenario, and how we deal with it, is going to shape the world for a long time.
People with nothing to lose and nothing to protect are pretty dangerous.  The people who, right now, are suffering the degradation and horror of being a refugee are going to be either welcomed and cared for in their time of need by the "West," or they are going to be turned away and further brutalized and marginalized.  If we take the latter course, out of fear, we will prove the terrorists right: western society is decadent and perverse and does not accept or care for the rest of the world.  If we vilify our Muslim neighbors and blame them for the actions of a very small group of people, we prove ourselves to be as blind to the diversity of global Islam, in terms of race, and particular forms of practice.
I know, coming from an American, this sounds awfully hypocritical, but this is really one of those learn from the mistakes of other people moments.  What the terrorists want is a violent response. They want rage, they want us to try and take revenge, they want bombs to fall, because that's what they have been telling people we would do all along.  Their motivation is not swift decisive victory in battle, their goal is a doomsday scenario where all the people of Islam rise up and destroy the infidel.  They don't care that the Qu'ran doesn't support the idea, they don't care how many of them have to die in the cause.  We have made so many mistakes in confronting this evil.
The genius, if you can call it that, of terrorism is that they don't want to win battles.  As the label terrorist implies, they want to create terror.  They want to make people afraid, they want to cause suffering, they want to provoke violence, because that is their stock and trade.  Terrorism is a tool of extremely small groups of people who are trying to battle something that is much bigger than them.  Remember when you all helped a bunch of American Colonists take on the mighty British Empire?  We used some of the same ideas.  In that case though, we were dealing with an enemy we understood very well.  We just had to make enough of a stink for the whole colonial enterprise to become unprofitable, we just had the British Parliament and old King George to run off, and you had our back. Comparatively, we had a lot more leverage than your average Mujahadeen, and our goal was much more attainable than the downfall of the entire western world.
The thing is though, at the start of that conflict, it was pretty split down the middle in terms of colonists who supported the crown and didn't really mind paying taxes in order to be part of the grand and glorious British Empire, and those who wanted independence.  The Rebels needed the Brits to flash their teeth before independence became a thing that a majority could agree on.  They did, and the war for independence was begun.
The plan of the Jihadists is plain and simple: provoke the west into acting like the imperialist bullies they have been saying we are.  Sow enough terror among the populations of nations like France and the US so that we "have to" respond with military intervention.  Then go run and hide. Leave the disposable foot soldiers out there to die in the bombings and  head back to comfortable compounds in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.  Wait for the war to create martyrs, and a whole new generation of desperate men with nothing to lose.  Rinse, lather, repeat.
So what do we do?
The only hope is to react in a way that is going to take a lot of self control.  We need to convince humanity that these clowns are a boil on the posterior of our species, a condition which is more properly handled with a sterile needle than with a bloody sword.  This means Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Atheists, this means people of all nations who are truly invested in the commonwealth of humanity are going to need to cooperate, and say, "enough."  Understand that this is going to be a slow process and we may need to absorb a punch or two along the way.  We've taken a few, we know it can be done.  But beware the warmongers!  There are many in our own houses who are invested financially and by temper in the waging of war.  Their voices grow loud in the wake of tragedy, and they recruit the victims and their loved ones all too easily.  They are the all too willing dance partners of the terrorists, and they want us not to notice that without them the techniques of the terrorists would be useless.
I admire your words: Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite.  The first two are important in our words as well, "Liberty and Justice for all."  But the last one, brotherhood or solidarity, well I suppose that's what I'm saying we need more than anything right now.
It is my hope that someday soon all the world will realize how important our mutual connection really is.  That is the only thing that can end the terror.
Amities,
Marc