[Polybius]

We didn't go into Iraq to "liberate Iraqis from tyranny"; we went in because we deemed Saddam's regime to be a threat to our national security. Period.

And, now that we have to either get Iraq on our side or bug out and give Iraq's vital strategic location and it's oil wealth to Islamist nutjobs, we can either define the strategic goal as a winnable and noble one:

"Creating and supporting a Muslim state along the lines of Turkey that actively fights against Islamist extremism and has been doing so since the days of Ataturk."

or we can can set ourselves an unwinnable strategic goal right out of the days of Cromwell or the Spanish Inquisition:

"Fighting a religious war against over 1.61 billion people around the World, regardless of their degree of religious sectarianism and religious fervor, based solely on what their religious label is."

[freedomdefender]

"Fighting a religious war against over 1.61 billion people around the World, regardless of their degree of religious sectarianism and religious fervor, based solely on what their religious label"

I don't know where you got that quote, but it's a good one. There seem to be a lot of freepers who want us to fight all Muslims. It's insane. The U.S. has never declared war against a religion - and declaring war against a religion with billions of followers would be insanity.