Ghost of a flea

If I don't think of them as enemies, they aren't.
Right?

Alternatively, we could stop pretending the French are our friends.

Why crap on the French when our own PM has already waved the white flag? If we aren't there to utterly crush elements that would create a hospitable environment for those who would commit acts of terrorism against the West, why are we there at all? Bring our boys home or set them loose, properly funded and equipped, on the enemy, with a one word order - "Kill". Nation building is for suckers.

Nation building when the enemy lives next door—and his safe haven is off-limits—is especially problematic.

Moreover, the "nation" we are "building" is constitutionally an Islamic "Republic", i.e., a backward toilet of a country. And its security forces are fond of young lads.

A better engine for human misery.

I am torn. With age comes one of two things, a constant concern for a world in which your children will live without fear of subway bombings and plane hijackings, and apathy NIMBYism. One one hand, I begin to think, with my aging 41 year old mind, that speaking with the enemy, if only to get them to bugger off and just kill each other off instead of pestering us, isn't that bad. Then I think "enough pussyfooting about, lets just nuke the pricks"..

All in all, I (the royal I as in we) just want to be left alone, but I fear that you cannot leave Islamic Fundamentalists to their own devices because eventually, as their religion decrees, someone will decide it is time to try to play Pinky and the Brain and try to take over the world yet again.

So, my vote is at least one toe in the "nuke the pricks" end of the pool. I am tired of it all, we have the ability to end it now, lets do so. No dialog. Boom.

You have just described, in summary, Belmont Club's six-year-old thesis, the "Three Conjectures". Still (as far as I can tell) quite plausible—and even a very likely outcome, should an Islamic nation get its mitts on WMDs.