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Well we cannot make an argument on the bases of "Well the fact are all irrelevant because they are crazy". That is not an accurate assessment of the Islamic leadership. The Mullahs want to win but they want to LIVE to win. They are more then willing to expend peons as suicide bombers, they are NOT interested in BEING the suicide bombers.

The point I am making is it utterly absurd to try and cram this Asymmetrical Warfare problem into a Conventional War context.

Counter Insurgency (AKA Counter Terrorism, Stabilization Mission, what ever) are probably more a political problem then a military problem. There is a military dimension to them but it is vastly less crucial to the solution then the political aspects.

You haven't been paying attention to what they've been saying and doing, particularly Ahmadinejad in Iran.

Charles Krauthammer has it summarized well in this column from last December. Here's an excerpt:

In Iran, Arming for Armageddon
... So a Holocaust-denying, virulently anti-Semitic, aspiring genocidist, on the verge of acquiring weapons of the apocalypse, believes that the end is not only near but nearer than the next American presidential election. (Pity the Democrats. They cannot catch a break.) This kind of man would have, to put it gently, less inhibition about starting Armageddon than a normal person. Indeed, with millennial bliss pending, he would have positive incentive to, as they say in Jewish eschatology, hasten the end...

Another source I'd suggest is MEMRI.ORG. They do a good job.

Since I'm married to someone who belongs to a faith (Baha'i) that comes from that region and is viewed as heretical by these folks I've been paying attention to what they say and do for a long time. I have a large number of Persian (note, not Iranian) friends who have fled that country so I also have direct sources of information. I also have a Lebanese American friend who's family was fairly high up in the Maronite Christian community and part of the Christian militia, the SLA. He still has relatives over there so he's feeding me first hand reports from there, as well.

The Jihadis are not in touch with the same reality you and I are. And they're acquiring the means to do something about it.

The Mullahs want to win but they want to LIVE to win. They are more then willing to expend peons as suicide bombers, they are NOT interested in BEING the suicide bombers.

You assume wrong.

Most of them are waiting with baited-breath for the 12th Imam... the rest are actively bringing about his return. What you're dealing with is potentially far more dangerous than Nazi-Germany or Imperial Japan. The conquest of western civilization was their goal... not its elimination.

We're facing a world-wide religion that's morphed into a 5th century death-cult.