Yes! . and the govt is letting them in a zillion ways. -- j
.

I preferred "here comes the sun" -- j
.

Well Said Sir! . yes, we have a war with a whole lot of perpetrators,
including errant cops and neighborhood bullies, druggies
and religious zealots. . guarding against all requires the
vigilance of a gargoyle and the determination of an Edison.
I too am a veteran, and thank You for your service.
let's watch both of the hands, together! -- j
.

AMEN!!!

The rules of engagement are what lead to "it don't mean a thing." It can't be an accident that soldiers are being held to a ridiculous level of responsibility in firefights, which do nothing but lead the soldiers to believe that "it don't mean a thing," destroying morale and building a mindset of defeat, because someone up the chain of command has his head up his ass, and will get you killed if you're not careful. What asshole is going to send soldiers into a war zone, and require that they get permission to fire back while they're under fire?!?!? And why is it more important to avoid collateral damage than to get the buggers you're after?!? And what genius thinks that it's possible to get people to move from the 7th century to the 21st in 10 years (or even 20)?!? And why is that the military's job in the first place? In a way, it's a blessing that Obama isn't sending our troops into harm's way, because he'd screw things up beyond fubar, just as Johnson and McNamara did 48 years ago. Just a thought game: how do you win EVERY battle, and lose the war? Put a democrat in charge.

CG is a ham, and I have never met a ham I didn't like! -- j
.

Time scale slightly off: Islam's birth was in the mid 600s, and the battle that stopped their rampage across Europe took place in Tours, France, in 732, thanks to Charles "The Hammer" Martel. By that time, Islam had overrun Christians across the Middle East and North Africa. They weren't thrown out of Spain until just before Columbus sailed.

+1 for exquisite sarcasm.

they aren't and because we have the knowledge of the end result we should act on that knowledge and get rid of them as quickly as possible by ANY means available to us.

The nation wants to destroy these bastards. The Zero, however, is behaving like a petulant child who tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Advised by those geniuses of military strategy, Valerie Jarratt and Susan Rice, the Zero will do little, blame Republicans, and try to run out the clock on his administration. He's setting us up for a tragic terrorist attack on American soil.

Actually, john, I do think it is a battle of religions - or at least ideology. Islam has been at war with the rest of the world since it's inception in ~400 AD and breakout in 800 AD. Part of their ideology is the mindset that there can only be one religion standing at the end - theirs. Another - and to me the most dangerous part - is that unlike all other world religions - they are willing to use force to press their agenda: they are willing to kill in the name of their religion in order to subject others to their ideology.

I think we have to ask ourselves what we are willing to do to maintain the cause of freedom and our rights to choose our own paths in life.

Uh, I'd hardly call a world religion with 1.6 BILLION adherents something that could be over-reacted to. That's between 1/4 and 1/5 of the TOTAL world population we're talking about here, and surveys among their own peoples have established that half support the goals of world domination and 20% are willing to fight and die for it. That's a freaking lot of people to marginalize, don't you think?

Well said. Same thing I thought.

I think the first and foremost problem is one of ideology. Ideology and values are the reason we persevered to win the Revolutionary War and the incursion of 1812. Ideology was what made us the greatest fighting force the world had ever seen in WW I and WW II. We knew what we were fighting for - the freedom of all people - and we weren't ashamed or afraid of that ideology.

The biggest problem I see in America today is that we don't have a clue what we stand for any more. This group stands for "Black Lives Matter". This group is all about Environmental Protectionism. This group just wants more welfare handouts. And our government leaders encourage these divisions.

The second problem I see is that our current leadership outright refuses to identify the problem at all. Worse, they attempt to apologize for it.

You can not wage war unless you are willing to identify the enemy, and you can not wage effective war unless you are willing to identify the fronts on which it must be fought, because from them you devise your battle plans. And as we saw from Vietnam, we must be united as a nation in the ideals behind the war or our own internal divisions will work against our will to prosecute the war to completion.

But don't expect reason from ISIS. They keep saying they want to kill Americans. We need to take them at their word and act accordingly. But I agree with you that we should just let both sides kill each other. Then defend ourselves against the winner. Shiite or Sunni, the radicals are not our friends.

So once upon a time there were Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis occupying Iraq. They had their own territories. Then there was England who pushed they all together into the country of Iraq, which none of the tribes wanted. So they fought for control. Then there was Saddam Hussein- a Sunni- who ruled with force and fear and kept the country of Iraq in one piece (sort of). The Iranians are Shiite, which prompted Saddam Hussein to wage war on them.

The the US gets rid of Saddam Hussein, and Iraq falls apart and winds up being run by a US-installed Shiite. The Sunnis go ballistic and when they get the chance, they reform into ISIS and pledge never to be run again by Shiites.

Now the USA wants to fight ISIS (the Sunni group). They have learned how to battle successfully the invaders, so the fight is on.

Its a regional religious war, and neither side is going to give in. We cant defeat either side without killing all the people on that side. We should let them fight it out themselves and keep our noses out of it. Then there is little reason for ISIS to fight the USA with terrorism.

The only solution is for Islam to go through a reformation, as other religions have done.
Note: because every word of the Qur'an is regarded by the faithful as the direct, unassailable word of Allah, this will never likely happen. Just questioning the holy books earns a death sentence.

Because they have a clearly stated mission from Allah to exterminate the infidel (that means you and me and our progeny) and establish a world caliphate.
Just because I believe one does not harm me until he strikes my nose, does not mean I am going to just stand there while he takes a swing.

Are we threatened by Islam or only Radical Islam?
For the answer, everyone should see yesterday's Fox (Nov. 17) Megyn Kelly interview with Morten Storm, the Danish once-dedicated member of Al-Qaeda who was turned by the CIA to be a spy.
http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/11/17...
I also refer those interested to http://www.exmuslim.org, which is very illuminating.

Difficult problem... The issue is that we're not ever going to win the 'hearts and minds' of Muslims, everything about our culture and values is counter to their beliefs and we're the leader of the world in most respects. Not fighting them isn't going to lead to them going to way, rather, it would be a sign of weakness and embolden them into more attacks. Their religion dictates that Islam is 'spread by the sword' for people who will not convert. The hearts & minds we would win is if we convert to Islam, and that would literally be over our cold, dead hands.

I saw the best quote by a general on TV the other day during a news conference "Can we bomb and kill our way out of this? Unlikely, but that's not a reason we shouldn't make a good-faith effort."