[mc6809e]

He makes some good points in general, but I think Mecca is the only place where such a strategy WOULD work.

If you want to shake the confidence of Muslims, show them that their god is powerless to stop the destruction of his most holy city. Scepticism in Islam would be the most important check on Islamic terrorism. People that lack complete faith in Allah don't kill themselves in his name.

Oh, and just make sure the Kaabaa is completely destroyed.

[r9etb]

If you want to shake the confidence of Muslims, show them that their god is powerless to stop the destruction of his most holy city. Scepticism in Islam would be the most important check on Islamic terrorism. People that lack complete faith in Allah don't kill themselves in his name.

I don't think so. Think of whatever place/symbol means the most to you, and then consider your response if it should be destroyed by a nuke.

Are you going to be "shaken," or are you gonna go looking for blood?

My money is on the latter. And so is bin Laden's.

[Agamemnon]

We needn't nuke them. Load B-52 bomb bays with pigs and drop from 30,000 ft on to Mecca (especially during the Haj), Medina (their second "holiest site"), and the Mosque of Omar (Jerusalem). This might just do the trick. Who would they ever get to clean it all up, I wonder?

Pig fat dipped bullets for the leaders and resisters would also be a finishing nice touch. I'm sure we could wrap the task into the Agricultural price-support budget and share the line item expense with the military.

[Kozak]

I agree. Big difference between removing the Pope, and vaporizing the Vatican. Caliphs have come in gone in Islam's history, but if we turned that rock into a crater, might give them real pause. Besides, the primacy of the Saudi Royal family is as " protector of the Holy Places". Removing said holy place puts them, and their allies the Wahhabi's out of a job.

[WestSylvanian]

I think the threat to nuke Mecca if terrorists explode nuclear weapons in this country is the only thing that will work to deter them. One of the reasons they despise us is that our soldiers (infidels) have been based in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East polluting their holy places. Let them know these sites are fried if they kill thousands of our citizens and make our cities uninhabitable. At the very least, the threat may force Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states to finally take action to prosecute radicals and shut down the schools that are producing them.

Show them we mean business. And we've got the track record to prove we're willing to use nukes ourselves. I think this is the only deterrent we have that's credible. Creating little democracies in the Mideast and hoping that the Saudis and others will clean up their act is a pipe dream.