1.) Unproven until we try it.
2.) Pure conjecture.
3.) You have no idea how many there are, and have no statistics to back up your assertion. There may be 400 million and there may be none.
4.) Also pure conjecture. We could win the war against radical islam if we used nukes, nerve gas, and biological weapons. It wouldn't be pretty, but we have the weapons to do it. All we lack is the political will.
5.) Also pure conjecture. How can we pull (your word) a billion people anywhere? What if they don't want to be pulled?
6. It remains to be seen if Bush has made the right decisions. We won't know that for at least a generation. He may be correct, or he may be making an error which could prove fatal to Western Civilization. I hope you're correct, but at this point there's no way to prove that.
7.) Demonstrably false. The Imperial Japanese weren't 'thirsting' for democracy. Osama Bin Laden isn't 'thirsting' for democracy. Neither is Zarqawi.
8.) Pure conjecture on your part. You have absolutely no proof that 25% is some kind of magic number.
In some cases, American support creates the exact opposite of the intended effect. They sure didn't seem to want American Style Democracy in Somalia did they?
9.) Here's the only thing you've said that's even partially correct. Defeatism as an attitude is indeed dangerous. What's equally dangerous is refusing to see your enemies as they really are. The only reason Japan is a nominally Democratic nation today is because we destroyed their military machine, wiped out their soldiers without mercy, and ultimately used not one but two nuclear weapons on them and threatened to continue to do so until they capitulated unconditionally. Even then it took decades to really get what you mistakenly call 'democracy' to take root. A similar case was Nazi Germany. It wasn't until their nation was utterly destroyed, their leaders in prison or dead, and thier military machine reduced to ashes that we could even begin to 'democratize' them.
Your poor grasp of the lessons of history seems to be exceed only by your worse grasp of human nature my friend.
There are roughly a billion followers of Islam in the world. Let's say that only 10% of them are 'radicals'. I think that number is low, but let's use it for the sake of argument. That's 100 million people who are perfectly willing to lie, cheat, steal, and commit the most heinous crimes in the name of their 'prophet'.
Add to that the fact that those 100 million people are spread over approximately half the globe.
On top of that you can factor in that it's those 100 million who are absolutely fanatical in their devotion to the 'cause' and are willing to murder anyone who disagrees with them even slightly.
Now, your fine new friends may be sincere. If they are, I'll salute their bravery. However, the odds are that they are not. Hell, their own 'holy book' commands them to lie to us 'heathen infidels', so how do you know, I mean really know they aren't just tellin you what you want to hear?
Now, you get back to me when you've digested my responses to you.
L
You are absolutely right.
You have no supporting documentation against my assertions as I have for them. I made the initial claims (the advantage of going first), now you deny them...with the same kind of documentation you demanded from me. If you can't, my assertions should at least get a fair hearing.
You've never debated, have you.