>It's a military certainty that the ONLY way to defeat a
>fanatic is physically since he is dedicated to his ideology.

I'm going to try to keep this brief and not write 50 pages, because there's CF stuff I want to do yet tonight.

Simply, I think you underestimate the transformitive power of the American culture and way of life. The way you push that isn't invading some random country in the Middle East; that makes it a lot harder for it to do is job and spread freedom, ironically.

Is Osama Bin Ladin going to give up his way of life and start hanging out at a McDonalds, watching Friends reruns, and listening to Britney Spears? No, of course not. Guys like that, yes, you either need to kill or marginalize by forcing them to live in caves in the middle of bumble#### nowhere. Even most of the liberal Americans that you deride aren't arguing that one.

But, give it a generation or two. Let the greatness of the Western way of modern life (such as it is) work its miracles, there aren't going to be any more OBLs. Or, if there are, they're going to be guys like the Unabomber who are living in the midst of a population that does not support the stuff they want to do, and thus, are made much less dangerous as a result.

The Cold War wasn't won on a battlefield. Overall, this is no different. Soviet Union propaganda-dudes back in the day lied to their people about what life in America was like, just as many governments of the Middle East or clerical leaders do today. The world is getting smaller, and truth and freedom can't be held back forever, not by anyone.