The biggest mistake of the middle east wars so far is this notion that if only we can KILL MORE OF THEM...IT WILL ALL BE OVER...!
This is totally false...and it's a recipe for even more disasters.
The problem is that occupying powers almost never prevail in modern times, because the more insurgents they kill--the madder the occupied people become.
Israel is a prime example... After 60 years of killing Palestinians...there is still an endless supply of people willing to die on the slightest prospect of "taking out" a few Jews.
In the past....the deep past...occupying powers would have to commit massive attrocities to subdue the native populations...
Indeed the British were the last to use this technique effectively.
But this notion of conquest by attrocity is not likely to be tolerated in today's geopolitics.
The last major "attrocity" was the US A-bombs used on Japan... And of course there was the total destruction of Germany from the air in 1944.
But it's much easier to commit civilian attrocities against enemies with actual armies... Then these armies are put into disrepute by their native populations...and eventually a new leadership evolves...as in Germany and Japan.
The Islamists are really a totally different breed...
You need to go back two to five hundred years to see how they have fought the west in the past... The history of the Crusades looms large here...
Of course to most Americans that was the part of the history book that the teacher always "skipped" at the end of the year! Right?
My operating assumption is that: first, ALL MUSLIMS are angry at the west...and second, that we can not kill all of them...
So sooner or later some accomedation must be made...
Amazingly, THAT ACCOMEDATION is easy, or was easy, to do...
Solve the West Bank problem...AND stop these nutty occupations of Arab and Muslim land... because we will never be able to "steal their oil!" So forget about it.
Besides, it's much cheaper to buy oil at world market prices...
So, for the west the answer is as easy as the old proverb:
If you find your self in a hole...the first thing to do is: Quit Digging!
In this context that means: QUIT KILLING MUSLIMS...AND ASAP.
THESE "WARS" ONLY MAKE MATTERS WORSE...
Still the Moron-in-Chief at the White House is afraid to stop for fear of the disaster that will surely follow. Shades of Hitler in 1944!
