No sestamibl. We cannot descend to such evil, even though our enemies seek to do so. After all, one of the goals of the jihadists, whether of the Sunni flavor or of the Shi’a flavor, is to finish the job on the Jews that the Nazis started. First they tried to kill all the Jews, now they are trying to kill the rest of us; Niebuhr’s comment in a nutshell.

One of the reasons I have been a supporter of the Bush strategy of reform of Muslim political culture is to avoid such a thing. It is a far-sighted and long-term strategy, so a lot of people either don’t understand it or have not got the patience to see it through.

As the jihadists continue their war against the rest of the world the non-Muslims are likely to put aside their present disunity (based on the gleeful and erroneous assumption of so many that this is America’s problem and not theirs’, and that they can make hay while we are preoccupied). They will probably eventually decide that “The problem is Muslims. No more Muslims, no more problem.” Then they will do pretty much what you propose. I want to avoid that. Unfortunately there may not be enough Muslims in the world who recognize the danger and who will cooperate with us to avert it.