Destroy Mecca and and you destroy Allah. Islam will then collapse like a burning building. Muslims will stumble around like dazed zombies.
Unfortunately, that's never been our M.O. However, if events in the Middle East make things sufficiently troublesome for Russia, China or even France, we will find out whether the moon-god cult will pray to a glowing crater.
We have one thing in our favor here - the other nuclear powers know that Obama's only response will be a strongly-worded letter.
Putin in particular must see how much stature he and Russia could gain by eliminating this problem. Seems like a real "Sputnik Moment" in the offing, IMO.
Yours is an astute point, and it's not like there hasn't been recent, numerous and deadly provocation's.
Regards,
TS