[Steel and Fire and Stone]

Bush, Peters, and other well meaning conservatives feel it's un-American to consider any religion as "beyond the bounds". Freedom to choose and hold one's personal religious faith is as old an American value as Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims. There's nothing more medieval than declaring an entire religious faith to be a threat and abomination to our American way of life.

All that taken into account, these folks are very, very wrong about what Islam represents. Islam represents mandatory submission to faith by the sword. Islam itself is the antithesis of every American value on freedom of religion. Islam is the anti-freedom faith. Islam is pure evil, though Muslims individually and as a group can be very nice people.

The problem is the trust issue. It's very unlikely that a local Baptist, Lutheran, or fundamentalist Christian kid will grab a sword or gun and go on a killing spree in the name of Christ (even if they should be vehemently pro-life). However, any Muslim kid who takes his Quran seriously, or worships earnestly at his local Mosque, would likely take up his Jihad for Allah, and become a threat to his non-Muslim neighbors.

Islam is the enemy; Muslims are Islam's foot soldiers. An extraordinary number of Muslims will have to die before the Islamic world will reevaluate Jihad and the faith. There's very little that the U.S. institutionally can do to dissuade thise religious zealots, for whom the penalty is death if they should decline their Jihad and abandon Allah. And of course, some of these "radical" Muslims see real opportunity for power and riches on earth if they realize their goal of a worldwide caliphate.

As unfortunate as it may be, if these Muslims do not die, many Americans and other non-Muslims certainly will. The only way to win this war is to break the Shiite and Sunni Wahhabi interpretation of Islamic faith. We must inflict massive pain on persons and targets of value to Muslims. We have no alternative but to test their oft stated premise that they prefer death over life. There will be no "Martin Luther's" in Islam based on the current Quran, unless he's wielding a sword, killing non-Muslims, and raping non-Muslim women into submission.

SFS

[Edit35]

...some of these "radical" Muslims see real opportunity for power and riches on earth if they realize their goal of a worldwide caliphate.

I wouldn't characterize any vision of a Muslim as "real" opportunity.

After all, there are scant (if any) devout Muslim countries which have created a society of "riches" and technological advance without the help of the US or the Brits.

Pure Islam never leads to riches or the technological betterment of society.

The only thing holding up the crazy Muslim countries now is the billions of $$ in oil money going their way.