[JasonC]

You can't. The symmetry isn't there in the political underpinings of the war, and you can't change that by wishing. Western opinion only half heartedly supports the military measures we are currently taking. Add ruthless, and only a small minority in the west will support any of it. When France tried this in Algeria, they first got stronger domestic political opposition, then cut through that with a military coup, installed De Gaulle, and then he sold out the hawks because it was politically expedient to do so.

You can't increase scarce western resolve by measures that divide westerners even more than they are already divided. The actual political division within the west is the basis of enemy strategy, and pretending it isn't there is delusional.

[jwalsh07]

What's delusional is the opinion, presumably yours, that fighting war on the terms of terrorists in an asymmetric fashion is somehow winnable.

Public opinion in both World Wars in America was the same as it is now. Americans were against the war and certainly would have been against the Dresden fire bombing and the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Well the data is in there. The killing stopped and the Japaneses and Germans are now members of the world's community in OK standing.

The data is also in on asymmetric warfare, the jihadists chosen milieu. The killing goes on ad infinitum, the war never ends and life becomes ever more dangerous for continental America and Israel.

I'm sure I'll still be delusional though when the first nukes/dirty bombs/chemical shell goes off in Anytown, USA or Tel Aviv.