It's tough to 'coexist' with people who are taught from an early age that it's alright to kill non-believers. And 'honor' killings are not just acceptable, but necessary.

If your god tells you that you need to kill someone, you need a new god.

A twelve-year-old Muslim boy has probably witnessed the ritual throat cutting of sheep, goats, and camels at least once a year. Killing is part of their culture. They are desensitized to it. It's small step from animals to people.

It's small step from animals to people.

Which is why it is people who live on farms who go on shooting sprees...

If you know enough history to have read extensively about the barbaric practices of the Japanese, and the Japanese military during WWII,, a rational person would assume that they and their culture were not salvageable either. And yet, here we are almost 70 years later, Japan is a reliable and civilized country.
The thing that most works against us in the Arab world, is their substatially lower IQ's (on average) compared to Asians.
They can be taught and they can be changed, but you have to be in it for the long haul. We also need to be willing to totally obliterate certain elements of their culture in order to drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Polygamy is one of the first things that needs to go.

These ... "people" ... these FUCKING ANIMALS ... have forfeited BY THEIR OWN CHOICE any human consideration and must be OBLITERATED for our own safety.

Isabell1130, The Japanese were completely defeated and surrendered unconditionally. The Emperor was no longer treated as a god. In other words, we destroyed a religion to change the political system. The country was nominally a monarchy, but practically a military dictatorship in the period leading up to WWII. Removing the leadership allowed us to change the government and thus change the culture.

Now we go to absurd lengths to avoid naming the enemy whose doctrine calls for our submission. You can't abolish polygamy, it's in their book and their book came from god, and nobody can change it. Who do we need to defeat? A billion muslims? Just the militant ones? If so, how? It's not like you can capture Mecca and win the war. You can't replace the pope of Islam and create peace.

Now we go to absurd lengths to avoid naming the enemy whose doctrine

Yes, exactly, that's what I'm afraid of.

It's bad enough to have economic idiots in the WH, but the only entity to oppose said ideology is basically Israel. These wars cost money. If money is gone at home, it certainly won't be available to oppose said ideology.

The answer to who we need to defeat Mark D, is the Arabs, and Arab culture. Of course it is more complex than that, but people are mistaken if they think that Arab culture is a manisfestation of Islam, it is the other way around. Islam is a manifestation of Arab culture just as Bushido and the militarism of Japan was a manifestation of their culture.

I can't think of a single good thing that can be said about the Taliban. But it helps to take a trip down memory lane going back to the late 1970s, and review other factors.

In the late '70s, a Communist faction with little internal support took over in Afghanistan. In '79, that faction was overthrown. The Soviet Union, next door, was not about to let a Communist government next door be overthrown, so they invaded, installed a puppet leader, and made war on the resisting populace of Afghanistan. Among other things, that war resulted in a big influx of agitated Arabs and other Muslims into Afghanistan to fight against the Soviets; a huge refugee influx into Pakistan of Afghans, and U.S. gov't support support for people who later became the Taliban. Many of them fanatics.

This is a simplified overview, but that region was radicalized by the Soviet invasion, and many of the consequences still remain. Afghanistan was traumatized by the civil war that followed the Soviet defeat, and the Taliban came out on top.

Scum of the earth have never been limited to the Muslim population. The Taliban are fanatics, but similar people have emerged from many locations of the world. Eric Hoffer's book, "The True Believer", offers up an interesting profile of these types of people. He said something like true believers realize a freedom to hate and act without restraint when caught up in a mass movement. That's what we see among Islamic fanatics which populate the ranks of the Taliban and al Qaeda. An evidently total lack of introspection, and the externalizing of their angry state of mind.