Oh okay so you're just entirely ignorant of that region's history. Cool beans.

Just curious: how would you remove one of the oldest religions in the world from a specific area? How would you go about doing that? Or is this just hypothetical talk?

I was posing a hypothetical. That's why included the lack of blowback in that scenario.

Sorry that wasn't clear: I was talking to the Hawkish one, as he said "Yes" and I wondered how he planned to do it. But if it's hypothetical I guess it doesn't matter. Carry on.

Even hypothetically though, that's still an ignorant view for him to take. But then I guess we already know that.

Yeah, the complexities of reality are quite a headache.

So you're saying the issue isn't with Islam but with arabs?

Edit: just realised this is the RIP thread. What's this debate doing here?

Atheism is a stupid identifier. Promote skepticism and logic.

No. Removing extremist ideologies and western imperialism will end terrorism in that region...

It really is. How do we combat an enemy that's suicidal? At least Nazis wore uniforms, and though the Viet Kong dressed in normal clothing, managing to blend in better with the locals, they still weren't suicidal. Maybe having boots on the ground could be adventitious . Or maybe it would cause more turmoil (civilians dying being the worst thing that could happen). We all know how great the war in Iraq is.

As far as self-radicalization in the west, this past terror attack is proving once again our beliefs that jihads live within the west. Just waiting for the right time to strike. Ok so now that we know that, how can we fix it? Can we fix it? Should we sacrifice freedom for more security? Or would sacrificing one or the other give us less of both in the long run?

You're a western elitist for assuming the starvation is outside the west.