[Cronos]

The problem with Roman methods is that to “kill them all” you must first know who “them” are. Do we really want to kill the entire Afghan nation, including women and children?

Not completely. The Roman invasion of Carthage was preceeded by a decade long embargo. Then they didn't kill the women and children.

A cruel, but less cruel approach -- convert or die.

It’s easy to talk tough, although a little sick IMO, but are you personally willing to cut the throats of the first dozen little Afghan girls? If not, you shouldn’t expect our soldiers to do it for you. -- I don't expect them to kill kids or even unarmed men and honestly I would baulk at even killing someone who wanted to kill me unless my blood was up, so YES, it is armchair warrior talking.

[Sherman Logan]

The Roman invasion of Carthage was preceeded by a decade long embargo. Then they didn't kill the women and children.

Well, they killed a lot of them. Then sold the rest into slavery.

This wasn't just a Carthaginian thing. When J. Caesar started his conquest of Gaul, undertaken pretty clearly for the political and financial aggrandizement of J. Caesar, there were ~6M Gauls.

10 years later he had killed 2M and enslaved and sold 2M, leaving 2M Gauls in their homeland.

This was not untypical of the Roman approach to conquest.

The Mongols, of course, were even worse.

What I don't get about those who proclaim the desirability of such methods is why Americans would want to become Romans or Mongols. I'd rather be an American.

[null and void]

Jingus Khan. Men and all boys taller than a wagon wheel.

[Cronos]

The thing is that Islam thrives on triumphalism. There can be no defeat as that is a defeat of Allah and Allah doesn't do that to himself. There is no strategic retreat in Islam

The right way is to invade Mecca and Medina and reduce them to the same state that they did to Ephesus, Constantinople, Alexandria..