Quote Originally Posted by Moonbeam View Post
So, we've got to keep this vaccuum sucking them up indefinitely? Or at some point will they be all cleaned up and we can quit?
They will be down to much lower level, and we will cease to fight because all of the other goals of the war will have been met. Remember, the war is not about any one thing.

Quote Originally Posted by Oneironaut View Post
Unfortunately, that's just not true.

...at all. I'd figure you to know better than that, by now, UM.

The "stream of idiots" that you are talking about spans more than a single generation. It is an ideology that we are fighting, not a generation. As long as the teachings of radical Islam can be passed from father/mother to son/daughter, then, yes, that finite stream that you are talking about is, definitely, indefinite.

That has been my main argument against this "military policy toward Islamic extremists", since the beginning. Our military (and obviously many Americans) looks at this as if we are fighting an established military - as if there is an accounted-for number of troops and, once we get them all out of the way, it will be all over.

That's not the reality of this situation.
When the mainstream of the remaining generation is in elementary school, we will have accomplished our ultimate goal in our part of the fight. The idea is that Iraq and Afghanistan will be strong democracies by then, and their socioeconomic situations and influences on the surrounding areas will have taken care of a great deal of the problems that breed terrorism. Hopefully, the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan in the future will move in and clean up the surrounding countries that are still garbage so we don't have to. That is how we fight the ideology and the stream of idiots that subscribe to it. So it just is true... at all. I figured you would know that by now.