I don't profess to believe anything of the kind, either way.
It is not predestined, if that's your implication.
If we took a poll, how many FReepers do you think would agree with the proposition that Saddam Hussein must be taken out even if it meant going to war against Islam?
Remember, our erstwhile ally, Pakistan, is both an Islamic state and a nuclear power, with delivery vehicles.
Terrorist attacks are terrible, no question. The perps of 9/11 and the suicide bombers in Israel and their masters need to be rounded up and shot.
But launching a nuclear war is an order of magnitude more serious, with consequences no one here can imagine. That's why I get particularly irate when posters flippantly suggest turning Baghdad into glass or dropping a neutron bomb on Mecca.
Such talk is not only pre-adolescent and hate-filled, it is downright dangerous. The fact that John Major goes way out on a limb in making threats he can't carry out is lamentable, but when Americans advocate extermination of Islam as if it were vermin, as I've seen too often on these threads, how do you think the rest of the world is going to react? Is it any wonder that Bush gets a cool reception for his plans to effect a "regime change" in Iraq when we have so many loose cannons wanting to continue the war even further?