[Travis McGee]

If AQ won control of SA, then they would make the next fatal step outside of their borders, and 20 minutes later, mecca and medina would be glowing craters. Then we would discover if Mad Mo's Insane Murder Cult could exist after Allahs all-powerful black moon-god rock was shown conclusively to be no match for a nuclear warhead.

That's the "alternateve B" end game to this dance, the only question is whether it happens in one year or twenty. Personally, I'd take my chances on a Saudi civil war, resulting in the deaths of 100s of 1000s of pro-jihadists. Similar in scale to what happened to the communists in Indonesia a generation ago.

[highlander_UW]

If AQ won control of SA, then they would make the next fatal step outside of their borders, and 20 minutes later, mecca and Medina would be glowing craters. Then we would discover if Mad Mo's Insane Murder Cult could exist after Allahs all-powerful black moon-god rock was shown conclusively to be no match for a nuclear warhead.

Do you honestly believe the U.S. would nuke Mecca and Medina?

People are very quick to advocate nuclear options, but as I mentioned to another poster, there are 1.3 Billion Muslims around the world, you nuke Mecca and Medina and you better start the draft and increase the military budget enormously as well as possibly install martial law within the U.S.

[Cronos]

Hmmm.... we nuke Mecca and Medina -- can't say I don't like that, BUT, next we'd have nukes, suicide bombaers etc hitting Rome, Washington DC, London, Paris, etc. etc. etc. And Indonesia, Pakistan, Iran, the rest of the Middle East, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Malaysia etc. declaring war on us.