Your take on the Islam is spot-on: it's not so much a religion as a recipe for conquest and subjugation. I lived in the Middle East for a while and I learned first hand that there is no such thing as coexistence- they have to be in charge or else.
Firepower is the one edge we have at this moment, they have mass. We absolutely must keep that advantage at all costs. I have been trying to lever the Marine Corps towards the next evolutionary moves towards the future but they are stubborn and slow to move with this generation of top leaders. Maybe after the younger set who have been blooded in Iraq and Afghanistan take the reins (and we rid ourselves of the current administration), we'll see movement.
Hope so.
Have genuinely enjoyed the discussion with you! Wish you "fair winds and following seas"...
Semper Fi
It’s been very enjoyable for me as well.
Since you’ve lived in Dar al-Islam, did you by chance read my Right Side News post “Our Society Has Lost Sight Of Reality”? It’s at — http://www.rightsidenews.com/2012092717100/editorial/rsn-pick-of-the-day/our-society-has-lost-sight-of-reality.html — I’d be interested in your opinion.
What has amazed me about Petraeus’ revival of COIN in FM 3-24 and in McChrystal’s implementing plan for Afghanistan was the absence of Islam and jihad! I wrote an MA on COIN (Walt Rostow was my thesis advisor at UT) and taught at the USAF Spl Ops Sch — the essence of COIN is knowing and taking advantage of the target culture. Islam IS the culture of raghead land. Bush, Obama, Petraeus, McChrystal, and all the neo-cons pretend Islam isn’t a big factor. The idea of “replacing” Islam with democracy is ludicrous.
Incidentally, I have very good memories of working directly for generals Dennis Murphy and Chuck Pitman when they were the C5 at ROK-US CFC. Great Marines!
Keep’em flyin’