The dust hadn’t settled from the recent terrorist attack in Belgium before the fear mongering went into high gear in America.

Of course, with a presidential campaign going on right now, I didn’t expect anything else, but I continue to be taken aback by the absolute panic that seems to take some people by the throat and shake them whenever an attack occurs.

Some posts that floated through my wife’s Facebook page — I don’t have one — were especially upset that President Barack Obama spent the afternoon watching a baseball game with Cuban leader Raul Castro. Possibly they were taking their cue from Republican candidate Ted Cruz, who proclaimed that the president “should be back in America keeping us safe.”

Well, I wonder what the president could be doing in Washington to keep us safe that he can’t do from Inner Mongolia, let alone from Cuba. After all, Havana is closer to Miami than we are to Casper, and there is this modern system of communication that he could use to issue any orders that are necessary.

Since 1963, the president has been accompanied by a “football” whenever he traveled. The football in question is a sealed briefcase containing authentication codes that would enable the president to communicate with the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, plus a list of options to help him make decisions about how to proceed. A military aide with the briefcase is always near the president when he is on the road. Given that, it should be obvious to Ted Cruz that, should he be elected — a scary thought — he won’t have to lock himself in the Oval Office to do the job he wants to do.

Sen. Cruz also says the president should have gone to Brussels to display solidarity with other western leaders. Exactly how could the president do that while staying back in America to keep us safe? The senator is no doubt aware of the contradiction, and he’s ready to criticize President Obama either way.

So, besides being in Washington, what does Sen. Cruz think President Obama should have done to keep us safe? Well, quit being “politically correct” for one thing, because, in the eyes of the Cruz supporters, and Trump supporters as well, “political correctness” is causing the downfall of America. If Cruz becomes president, he will say the politically incorrect words “radical Islamic terrorism” on the day he takes office. Then he will carpet bomb them into submission and all will be well.

At home he says he will put Muslim neighborhoods under “heightened monitoring” and have law enforcement “patrol and secure” the neighborhoods, in the belief that they are hotbeds of radicals training as terrorists. To me, that sounds alarmingly like the establishment of a police state wherever Muslims might happen to live.

Well, I may be politically correct in saying this, but the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism” will not accomplish anything except encourage anti-Muslim bigotry. Unfortunately, that’s exactly why the senator uses it. He wants us to be suspicious of all Muslims, even though very few of them are actually terrorists. If he induces enough fear in people, it will justify the heavy police presence he plans in Muslim neighborhoods where jihadists are supposedly being trained.

The truth, though, is that recent studies are revealing that the current crop of terrorists, including the two brothers responsible for the recent attack in Brussels, are not particularly religious. The brothers have not been devout Muslims, but are basically career criminals who have served prison time, one for armed robbery, the other for attempted murder. They may be religious now, but they may just be using Islam as a smokescreen to hide the fact that they are just thugs engaged in crime. Ordinary Muslims would have reasons to report such people to the police, but if they are alienated by a heavy-handed police presence in their neighborhoods, they might hesitate.

Bill Bratton, New York City’s chief of police, denounced the senator’s comments as out of line last week.

“We don’t need a president that doesn’t respect the values that form the foundation of this country,” Bratton said, adding that he takes “great offense” to Cruz’s statements about Muslims.

Then there’s the senator’s promise to destroy ISIS with carpet bombing, which mostly proves that he doesn’t know much about bombing or about the way ISIS operates. A former Navy officer, Christopher Harmer, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told “Business Insider” magazine, “You have to be deliberately ignorant of the nature of ISIS…and the limits of air power to advocate carpet bombing.”

Such bombing would kill a lot of civilians and possibly a few ISIS fighters, Harmer said, and added that it would probably help ISIS in the long run.

The truth is ISIS wants Muslims to think that the U.S. is making war, not on ISIS, but on Islam, and a rational look at Sen. Cruz’s plans indicates that the actions he proposes would help ISIS convince many Muslims making war on Islam is just what the U.S. is doing. That’s the last thing we need in that area.

Instead of encouraging fear and bigotry, our president should focus on finding effective ways to fight ISIS without alienating every Muslim in the Middle East. Domestically, he should do everything he can to promote trust in local law enforcement officials by all citizens, increasing their willingness to cooperate in identifying individuals and groups who may be plotting attacks, regardless of their motive. That’s the only way we will defeat terrorism.

Dividing us into groups and promoting bigotry will just make it worse.