“Not only would there be direct damage to Islam’s holy places, the fallout would remain for years, making these places untenable for a very long time.”
Now, that’s what I like. Hit their “holy places” and Islam will be like a rudderless ship — no longer effective.
One of the things I like about the USA is that most of our internal conflicts go back no more than 250 years, and we don't take our religious conflicts too seriously. But for the Moon Cultists, every other city is a holy place, and every third day some kind of festival (celebrated, apparently, but packing far too many people into one place and crushing them to death.)