The Taliban - and the rest of the tribes in Afghanistan for that matter - don't respect anyone who is weak. They live a hard life, averaging only 46 years. The weak in their world live much shorter than that. They didn't like the Soviets, but they respected and feared them. Complaints about collateral damage and striking of "civilian targets" is horse$hit. No nation on earth has EVER gone to such great lengths to avoid killing civilians in a military conflict as this one. If we, as the leading nation of the free world want to eliminate terrorism, we had better earn their fear and respect. They aren't ever going to like us - that's the entire reason that they are trying to kill us. If we succeed in making them at least fear us, and take away their ability to predict what our reaction will be to their strikes, then their attacks will stop. We will have effectively terrorized the terrorists. This is a simple case of good versus evil. Religion is only the shield that OBL hides behind for his Saudi masters. Once the world realizes that we finally have a President in the White House instead of a Resident, and that our President is going to look out for the nation rather than his own interests, the respect and fear that we deserve will once again be in place. The pacifists would rather that we deal with terrorists from a position of weakness. That is why they are pacifists - they LIKE TO BE THE VICTIM. That is about as un-American as it gets, and thank God that x42 is out of power. With luck, our entire political system will soon be rid of the closet communists (53 of them in the 'Rat party), and it will no longer be considered acceptable to be politically correct. These pacifists don't tolerate my views - such as yourself - so why the hell should I listen to theirs? In a conservative forum, no less. This garbage belongs over at Antiwar.com, the DU, or Hillary.com. Whether or not I'm referring to you there is up to you to decide. If the shoe fits....
I've got your parrot right here, Gimlet. Stuffed and mounted. And yes, it did taste like chicken.