[TheRealThing]

I think bipartisanship just muddies the situation futher really. Both sides have made big mistakes.

We're screwed from my point of view. I really don't even think the administration really wants to do this, but feels it has to for mainly political reasons. That's a joke on it's own but the world we obviously live in. We're so screwed in the Middle East that I don't see how we still hold any credibility with any ally. I think the main reason we still have any on our side is because of what they get from us in return.

I'm confident that by the time my kids are my age (which will be quite a while since I don't have any yet), we'll still be fighting terrorism on a large scale. I don't see us being at peace for another 20 years at least, and that is a shame. It's going to be one thing after another.

I think you are exactly right. To me one must go back at least as far as the Carter administration to get a handle on the attitude of radical Islamists. Under his watch, America sat seemingly paralyzed on her hands and watched the Shaw be deposed with spit dripping off her chin. (a similar foreign policy fog bank has again beset the land in our day) Remember the ridged resolve demonstrated the Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers to reinstate the validity of strict adherence to Sharia Law in Iran? Fast forward to the military overthrow of Mohammed Morsi and the reaction of his followers. The Egyptian based Muslim Brotherhood had been lurking in the shadows for decades, patiently effecting change and standing in unwavering fashion, hoping to see the reestablishment of Sharia Law and eventually the Caliphate. They had successfully seized upon the opportunity to grab power in the vacuum created by the departure of Mubarak. Now they're more determined than ever to push forward with their dream of total control of the Middle East and eventually the world. These guys really believe they'll be rewarded for sacrificing themselves on the field of battle which, to them is anywhere from a crowded café in Jerusalem, to caves in Afghanistan, to the cockpit of a Boeing 767 with a bead on the 82nd floor of the World Trade Center south tower.

It's hard to know exactly how to deal with people who will never stop coming at you. From my view. We must understand that as a matter national survival, we should never blink when dealing with these guys. If they continue to kill and maim, we must respond in kind and we will have to do that each and every time. You know, we actually won in Iraq and then surrendered after the victory was secured, on the premise that Iraq needed to become self sufficient. Heck, we lost more American citizens over a single weekend in a Chicago land murdering rampage than we lost in Iraq in six months. The legions of Rome never left a conquered land with their tail tucked, it would have made them seem somehow weaker than they really were. Same thing with Iraq, we won and then scrammed out of there like we didn't have a clue what we were doing there in the first place. Sort of like paying for a corvette in timely monthly precision only to default on the very last payment thereby losing the corvette along with the respect of the bank and the community. We made ourselves look impotent.

One thing is certain. Strong leadership and visionary foreign policy is best left to legitimate statesmen and not in the incapable hands of novice liberal ideologues.