Check out some of my postings on this matter. We're singing out of the same hymnbook brother. It'll either be Total War or Total Defeat and slavery to terrorists.
Those 3 soldiers deaths demand serious revenge !
I don't want to hear another word about Haditha....
I was once in a professional military education class that i need to complete in order to advance to my next rank and the a similar subject came up. I argued for complete war (gloves off, raping, pillaging, killing grandpa, grandma, junior and daughter, burying people in pig skins, etc.) in order to fight one war for all other wars. My theory was, our enemy already hates us - no matter how nice we as a country try to treat them.
An analogy the U.S. and insurgency are playing a game of football and we ( the U.S.) mandate to game be touch football. The insurgency touches sometimes, but often our players get absolutely hammered. We in-turn maitain stay the course and continue to play touch football in order to maintain the moral high ground.
It is my opinion that our enemies will continue to disregard us as a force until we take the fight to them in a manner they will understand. Yes, I think it will initially embolden the enemy, but I still don't think there is a force on this planet that can hang with the U.S. military in a total war.
Wrapping up my original point, when I said that during my class, I was looked at like I was on crack. People could not understand the concept. Some even laughed at me like I was an idiot. Their main argument was that we need other countries to be in agreement with us. I reasoned, most countries don't like the U.S. to being with (it is a jealousy thing) so which is better to be liked or feared?
No war is good, but I would rather fight just one and set an example than continue to live in the fog of constant war and terrorism. And if we keep playing nice with the enemy we will continue to live in that fog.