The best way to conquer a people is to expose them to your way of life and thinking. The Mongols conquered China and were eventually reconquered by exposure to the Chinese lifestyle.

The western lifestyle is contagious. Freedom is contagious. Expose enough muslims to this religious and political freedom and you will start to see their religion evolve and change - as all religions do when exposed to more intelligent concepts.

Look at Japan. A more peaceful nation can hardly be found. Yet they were some of the most aggressive and militaristic folks on earth only a century ago. Their religion embodied the Emperor as the link to God on earth. His will was their command. Religion in japan has experienced "enlightenment" and is no longer the threat to the world it once was.

If the US can do for the middle east (and the muslim religion which has been basically stagnant) what it did for Japan - the price will be well worth it.

The children of the children now in occupied Iraq will grow up accustomed to freedom and almost all will not be willing stooges perpetrating violence to return to some barbaric closed society.

Barbarism's days are numbered - progress and technology always win out. Freedom always wins out. It's a daring and unpopular strategy that will cost lives but is likely to have saved even more lives in the future.

SDAI-Tech1