This is an ancient war that started long before the United States was even a country. Europe has tried both tactics in the past, first fighting back in the Crusades, and then playing the appeasement game in the early 1800s. And we played the appeasement game too until Thomas Jefferson decided that we would no longer pay tribute.
When he asked the Tripoli ambassador why they would make war on countries that had done them no injury, the ambassador replied:
It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.
So Jefferson sent in the Marines. It got messy but in the end they stopped seizing our ships.
Did you catch that? The Koran teaches them that it is their
RIGHT AND DUTY to plunder and enslave the infidels. This is what they do. This is what they have been doing for centuries. Maybe some moderate Muslims want to sit at home and be peaceful, but the "faithful" do not, they want to take over the world, get killed in process, and go straight to paradise. Most of the terrorist attacks are in countries that are trying to appease them - they see it as weakness and exploit it. It doesn't matter whether the countries have participated in attacking Afghanistan or not.
The 9/11 Commission concluded that
"The terrorists were at war with us, but we were not yet at war with them."
The only question is how should we best fight this war. Surrender is not an option...not unless you want to learn Arabic and face Mecca 5 times a day.