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Our thoughts are much alike.

When we think of theocracy, we most often reach back in history to the Holy Roman Empire, the Vatican and the Catholic Church. We could also list the early American colonies founded by one Christian denomination or another. In these instances the religion was paramount to government, so indeed was the authoritative institution in those societies. They also had a clear and present head, much like a monarchy. Islam has no such head.

The history of Islam is riddled with strife. When not externally with a non-muslim nation, internally amongst themselves. This is due to the absence of a single head. Islamic clerics issue opposing interpretations of Islamic law with no authoritative overview, and thus no accountability.

If the terrorists attacks and conflicts of these past few decades had been carried out by Roman Catholics our response would be targeted at the Vatican because we recognize it as the head, or base of Catholicism. Islam lacks such a singular head or base. I purposely used the Roman Catholic Church in this example as it has a comparable worldwide population to Islam, but is differentiated in that it cannot pursue a planned course of world domination by violent conquest without suffering the possible loss of its head or base.

Lacking a true head or base, and because Islam can easily find justification for violence based on the edicts of its clerics for any cause, it is the whole of Islam that is at fault.

In WWII, our enemies were primarily Germany, Japan and Italy. Our military was unleashed to defeat these entire nations, not just the leadership or their military. We can have no lesser goal in fighting Islam. Islam is at war with every people and nation they come in touch with, be it the USA, India, Thailand, Israel, Russia, the Philippines, Europe, and numerous African nations. Those Islamic nations not in direct conflict with neighbors have ongoing internal strife brought about from edicts issued by clerics opposing whatever form of government exists within those nations presently. The death and barbarism can never end because there is no single authoritative head.

A side note about communism and Islam, actually two side notes. The invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR gave birth to al-Qaeda because communism was so hated by Islam for being a godless form of government. Islamic nations that found reason to embrace relations with the USSR never embraced communism, but did so out of necessity to acquire military support.

Lastly, during the Cold War our enemy was most commonly defined as communism, not Russian communist, Chinese communists, Polish communists, or German communists. The enemy was communism itself, just as our enemy today is Islam itself.

Actually, the Protestant churches were the ones that tried to set up true theocracies (where the secular government is run by the religion and members of the clergy). Catholicism has always had a very clear distinction between the leader of the secular state and the religious authorities, and has endured much persecution when secular leaders (such as Henry VIII) attempted to take over religious authority.

There have been times when the State and the Church have worked together, and these times have never been good for the Catholic Church, because the State always wins. The Spanish Inquistion, for example, which was originally intended to be an internal disciplinary activity aimed at rooting out tendencies that had crept into the Church in Spain during its Islamic captivity, as well as immoral practices particularly among the clergy, was transformed into a State-sponsored persecution because the Church relied upon the State for certain administrative things and thereby gave itself into the power of the State and its politics.

However, in Christianity, these things are fundamentally separate, and even modern Protestants do not hark back to Cromwell and wish they were members of a state and church like his, which were one and the same. That is because theocracy goes against the nature of Christianity. Even Protestant Christianity, which does not have a temporal head, rejects the idea of a state controlled by religious authorities.

But Islam has been a theocracy since the beginning. It is a syncretist cult that took bits of Jewish ritual law and the concept of the "prophet" from Judaism, some historical figures and the concept of multi-nationality from Christianity, and its black rock at Mecca and demonic concept of a remote, unpredictable god that must be placated at all times by bizarre bloody acts from Arab paganism. Islam requires the imposition of sharia and in fact also rejects the concept of the secular state that it has been forced to accept. I think that unless we understand that Islam wants to impose itself on the totality of human life - because that is its nature, not a corruption of it - we are being fools.

Of course, one look at Islamic societies will tell you how well this model functions! Interestingly, as you point out, it is riddled with strife - but that's because the nature of Islam is such that if it becomes more moderate (from contact with non-Muslim societies, for example), the more orthodox, who actually have the support of Islamic scriptures, rise up and overthrow the moderates. That's what we're seeing right now, but that's what we've seen for 1400 years.

Islam doesn't have a head (although the direct descendants of Mohammed do have primacy), but I still believe it could be destroyed by destroying Mecca because that's where its cult-object is. On the other hand, bombing the Vatican and even killing the Pope would be upsetting, but have no effect upon Catholicism. This is because the Pope is not an object of worship and another Pope would be elected; the main office of the Church could be (and occasionally has been) established anywhere; and while the loss of the symbolic significance of Rome would be sad, it would not destroy either Christianity in general or the Catholic Church in particular. But I think if the Muslims lost their black rock with the hole through the middle and the strange vagina-shaped silver lips around the hole - well, the entire religion would vanish as if its people had been released from a wicked enchantment.