[Trercakaressy]

I do not see the possibility of a negotiated settlement with today's Islamic fascists.

I agree 110% (other than I wouldn't call them fascists).

I actually went back and included the condition that "your opponent is a unitary nation or state" in my initial response because of this very consideration.

You can't wage war on a philosophy because a philosophy resides in peoples' heads.

What you can do is wage war on the nations from which "Islamofascist" philosophies arise and fester, that is to say, wahe war on the heads in which those philosophies reside.

As I also said in my initial post, Hama rules apply.

You can't defeat Islamic terror within, say, Saudi Arabia, without being willing to literaly level Saudi Arabia, even to the extent that you'd turn the place into a big old Pyrex® parking lot.

I think the mistake a lot of people in the West make when approaching the issue of total war (to include the total destruction of cities vis-a-vis carpet bombing and missile attacks) in regard to the Arab/Islamic world is to apply Western standards of philosophy and appropriate/acceptable use of force.

When you look at the Blitz over London you see that total war just hardened British resolve. When you look at the elimination of Hama you see that al-Assad completly eliminated the issue of Islamic extremism in Syria to the extent that it didn't even exist in the aftermath. It's only recently that Islamism has begun regaining a foothold, in large part because Syria is westernizing now to the extent that they've adopted Western values in regard warfare.

If we had gone in to Iraq and kept the peace where peace could be kept and took centers of insurgent gravity (Falujah, Ramadi, al Nas, etc...) under multi-day artillery bombardment to the extent that the only thing left was dust and rubble we would have ended the Iraqi insurgency within a year or two.

Might makes right in the Arab/Muslim world. That's the way it's ALWAYS been.

Again, look at Saudi Arabia. There is no point in that nation's history when it wasn't controled by some form of autocratic regime that kept the "little man" under its boot heel.

Either we need to be willing to step in with a big old boot, or we'd be better served by staying home and not pissing away the lives and money we're wasting there.