David, I think any of us would stand behind a conflict in which all good people were fighting all bad people. The problem comes in identifying the distinction under conditions of warfare. Seems we're not doing such a good job of limiting the fight to simply the true polar opposites. Too many people in between pure good and pure evil are caught in the crossfire.

It would be wonderful if we could only confine our fight to the murderous thugs of Islam that are calling for beheadings of the cartoonists but I simply don't see a way to do so in all out military conflict. There has to be a way of taking these guys out individually by covert operations or better yet, politically rendering their rantings moot. I'm all for people like that having their lives ended but so far it seems like when we do that we just create 3 more.

The airing of these political cartoons made its point that there's this horrible extreme side of the Islam world but I would caution against getting drawn into the conclusion that the rest of the Islamic world is in agreement or could be limiting their effect. If it were simple to stand up against the radicals of a religion, why do we still have the Pat Robertsons as spokesmen for Christianity. One can complain bitterly against the extremists of one's own religion but it doesn't resonate with the mindless pawns they control. Somehow you have to get into the minds of the followers that give these guys power. They are generally economically depressed, alienated folk, often uneducated. They're like the wet and unfed kittens that show up at the door and latch themselves onto the first person that puts out a cup of milk.

Well guess who's handing out milk to the teeming masses? Often it's these terrible, beheading zealots. Then they play videos of the aftermath of one of our bombing runs, conveniently showing children's twisted bodies. The only ambassadors of peace from the United States that they seem to see are generally Christian groups that are, despite their benevolent intents, probably viewed in the same light you would give Islamic missionaries that showed up at your doorstep offering help with your problems.

I am not saying that violent extremists should not be hunted down and brought to justice. I'm simply saying that it appears our approach is only one-sided and I don't see an end with that strategy. Without supporting and nurturing the areas the radicals recruit from, killing them does nothing more than reinforce their message and make them martyrs. Maybe I'd have more faith in our "strategy" to go "free" places like Iraq if I felt we first connected in a non-secular, humanitarian mode with the people we're trying to free.

Art