It was a rhetorical question. I should have included "Where does it all stop?" to the end of my opening sentence to make my opinion more clear. I do however harbor much hatred for Islam and wish it could be eradicated. Realistically though, this will never happen. Only reform from within will change that religion.
Not necessarily. IMO one of the biggest obstacles we face is that most of those of the Muslim faith refuse to ostracize the extremists or help us against their "brethren". I'm not sure that that will ever change. Bingo.
Actually, we failed to realize soon enough that the Shah did not have the loyalty of the people and backed him way too far. To the point that the people rose in revolution against him. We have to guard against this in Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, all of whom are US allies that preside over a general population that hates the US. The next Iran situation will happen in Pakistan. A secular ruler friendly to the US will be overthrown and replaced by an Islamic strongman, possibly a mullah, who will be hostile to the US. They have nuclear missiles. And we will still be mired in Iraq.
They won't love us for quashing Al Qaida, but they respect power above all things. If we use it effectively, we will be respected, as we were after 9/11. Now that we have used power foolishly, they ridicule us. These people sail with the wind.
