The West cannot win this war against militant islam. We can try to change the political and perhaps religious climate in those countries. This is what Bush is doing (and why on earth the Democrats and our "allies" aren't helping with this is beyond me.) The Pope is putting his life on the line -literally- to engage their religious leaders in a dialogue which may bear fruit about a century from now. We can perhaps force a democratic direction which may or may not take root - sort of like you force a card in bridge. But - only Islam and the people of those islamic countries can purge themselves of these violent radicals. It does'nt look good.

Actually, the West can win. But it will take multiple devastating attacks from the Muhammaden Religion of Peace (death toll at least 50k) and a link to state sponsorship to trigger a reasonable (but not proportionate) response.

If you study the Quran (Verse of the Sword) and the Islamic culture (honor and shame), you'll know that nothing short of a devastating attack on a Holy Site (obliterate it) and a crackdown domestically will start to do the job.

Too many people don't realize we are dealing with a fully irrational enemy here. The Quran tells the Muhammadens what to do...and it says spread Islam by the Sword, and through temporary truces until strong enough to win(Hudna) and deception (kitman). Diplomacy will NOT work. But I understand why nobody wants to hear it. Very uncomfortable and a bit scary.

Unfortunatley, I gave up on the idea of Islam having its own Enlightenment. The religion tries once and failed in the 11th century (ijtihad).

"The West cannot win this war against militant islam."

Nonsense. Of course we can. We have the raw military might to see to it that Islam is a religion practiced only in Hell, if that's what it takes. What we lack is the political and moral will to do that. In fact, we seem to largely lack the political will to even identify militant Islam as the problem. Islam is a religion of peace, don't you know?

You're absolutely right that 'it doesn't look good'. While we dither the Iranians are working dilligently to get nukes and they've already told us what they'll do with them. After a couple of mushroom clouds have gone up I've a feeling the dithering will stop. Then, God help them, Allah certainly won't.

The dems seem to have enough trouble accepting a war to get bin laden while Boosh is president. Fighting any other terrorists is completely beyond the left.

I don't think we have what it takes to win. Sure, we have the power to win, but don't have the will or the attention span. Most Americans just don't want to talk about this because it is too unpleasant. They just hope it will go away.

oh, jeezus!
what is the war "about"?
well, it seems to have taken 150 to realize the civil war was about slavery and not states rights (re: Look
Away, a history of the South in the Civil War)
This president declared war, to "defeat" terrorism, substituting one extremist for another, and both are thriving.
The nation was called upon to retalliate. Just that much. Swift, sure, done. But to a president with nothing to do, we handed a gun to a child. Bush is a child. And not a nice one.
Doesn't anyone care that too many people are dying? Being painfully disfigured for life?
Goddamit!

So Gerald, what did Bush do to cause 9/11? Do you realy think that if we would have treated that attack as a police action we would be at peace now?

Gosh, Gerald... how surprising that no alternative course of action is mentioned in your condescending evaluation of the guy that kicked everybody else's ass in the last couple of elections.
You seem angry, but at who? At President Bush? At the people that elected him? At the country that raised him?
Are you honestly advocating that we should only launch wars of retaliation? Tit for tat? Eye for eye?

I have NO idea what your considered, rational (no matter how under-informed since we all have a lot less data than the National Command Authority) recommended direction is. Please. Elaborate.

P.S. Gerald, before you trace your finger down the script/talking points to "chickenhawk/why don't you fight/blah blah blah" I'm currently IN Iraq, have been here twice before, will likely come back next year, and am not complaining.

For everyone else, sorry to have addressed a single commenter rather than the topic at hand... It's just so tiresome...

Again, apologies for dwelling, but I just followed the link to Gerald's little patch... wow. Never mind any requests for dialogue, I hold no hope out in that direction. Wow. I either feel dirty for having contributed a pip of statistical weight by visiting, or I've just seen the best, driest satire since the Onion or Scrappleface. I honestly have no idea.

Wow.

I'm not prepared to let this "conflict" drag on like this for decades, and I don't think anyone else is, either. I think most people are already sick and tired of these murderous nutcases planting bombs all over the place and turning out in huge mobs yelling and screaming and setting fire to things every time somebody says something they don't like or publishes a cartoon they don't like. We want life to get back to normal.

The core reason for the existence of a country's military forces is to protect its territory and people. We should do whatever we need to do for that purpose. The next time the Islamist fried-brains commit some major atrocity on American soil, targets THEY care about will go up in mushroom clouds, starting with Mecca. They'll get the idea soon enough and this thing will be over. Think Americans wouldn't do it? 9-11, Beslan, Bali, stories about honor killings and clitorectomy, and all the endless, tiresome rioting and screaming at the tiniest provocation, have thoroughly dehumanized Muslims in the eyes of most Americans. One more mass murder, and the final straw will settle on the camel's back -- and a lot of the Middle East will turn into radioactive lava.

I hope it won't come to that. But whether it does or not is entirely up to the Islamists.

Infidel753,

That is what we may want, but the US is no longer capable of winning wars. We just don't have to balls to apply the necessary force. Even to protect our own lives.

That we have let Iraq go on this long without winning it shows that we just don't have the ability to quash our enemies, even weak, ridiculous enemies like these.

Even if we suffer a 9/11-type or larger attack, we will probably not apply more force than we already are. Liberals will not permit it.

Even if we suffer a 9/11-type or larger attack, we will probably not apply more force than we already are. Liberals will not permit it.

Actually, hell hath no fury like a liberal scorned. Just check out the left-wing blogosphere. All the multi-culti 'give peace a chance' folks will be the first to scream for blood when a nuke goes off in Manhattan. Unfortunately, that's not speculation, it's a prediction.

gerald is a child. He has a simple notion of the world. Americans who like Boosh are bad people. People who don't like Boosh & everybody else are good. AirAmerikaRadio taught him this. War & conflict w/ insane muslims would just go away if it wasn't for BooshChimpHitler manufacturing them.

Twok -- check your premises, and your send of what a liberal is (a glance at my website wouldn't hurt). I used to volunteer for abortion-clinic defense. Pretty much everyone I met doing that was strongly leftist and anti-Bush. I expressed my feelings about Islam to them in pretty much the same terms as in my comment above. None of them ever objected. Several of them agreed enthusiastically. They knew very well what Islam means for women's rights and other values they support.

Don't assume that nuts like Gerald or the caricatures of leftists promoted on right-wing websites are typical. Extremists are not the mainstream, not on either side of the political spectrum.

(OK, quickly skip past those comments, looks like the same old cr#p, don't want to get sucked in to responding...)

Actually, I think we'll be hearing from Bin Laden soon. I think the terrorists spread these rumours themselves to maximise the effect of his propaganda videos.

Unfortunately.