Especially the 911 "truthers". For a portion of them, it IS about religion... or anti-Zionism, at least. It's like trying to talk a rabid dog out of having rabies.

You can probably add wolves to the list. If anyone has watched that classic one man documentary "Alone in the Wilderness", the story of Dick Proenneke who built a cabin in Alaska and lived by himself for most of his adult life, he ran across a pack of wolves that killed a young moose, but didn't eat much of it; they seemed to enjoy terrorizing and bullying the animal for some time too. He said he could never look at wolves the same again.

Of course, there's an apologist for everything: http://www.wolfsongnews.org/ne...
Personally I think wolves are magnificent creatures but this dude sounds a bit too much like a tree hugger.

If the original Native American tribes gathered up strength and started launching attacks on the US government, would you condemn them ? The mere fact that you bring them up suggests you justify the resentment and anger of a people overtaken.

Sorry, I can't buy the bit about the olive branch. The difference is, the Franks at that point were mostly a united set of tribes, under one religion, native to their lands (Gaul). The Moors were invaders. The Franks had converted to Christianity willfully when Clovis converted, and the Romans didn't force him at sword point, it was a political decision. The Goths were nomadic, but within context, native to Europe too, at least. Though brutal, yes.
The one famous case I know of where Christianity was brutally spread was when Charlemagene launched his massacre of pagans at Verden. That was equivalent to what ISIS is doing now with everybody: shia, sunni, christian, yazidi, etc... One thing the pagans always had over monotheist religions, they rarely tried to convert a defeated foe to their own gods; they might mock them, but freedom of religion seems far more prevalent under polytheism.

In any case, I disagree that Cordoba was some kind of utopian melting pot. Non-muslims, if not slain in battle (because they'd surrendered) were deemed "dhimmi" and had to pay the jizya, a tax. They were essentially made into second class citizens, in once was they're own land. Same as in Jerusalem.

Isolationism just isn't a realistic option. The world is too small. Global economies, trade, energy, technology, transportation.. all that.
I would love nothing more to be able to live on a separate planet from them, but we can never return to those days.. short of an armageddon type scenario.

That will not be anywhere nearly enough. Not even. There's not enough logic in that region for that to happen. It won't stop conspiracy theories, lies, and blame. Propaganda needs little evidence when you can just shout Allah Ackbar and blame the infidel. Not to mention, Israel. The mere fact we support them is enough for most.

Our equipment we left for the IRAQIs, that ISIS *stole*. The US didn't GIVE that shit to ISIS. If someone steals your sister's car while you've borrowed it and parked it outside to go into a store, did you "give" her car to the thieves? Put a bow on it maybe? No.

Exactly. Does what is now Spain and part of France not count as "Southern Europe", which is what I said? That's the path the warring Moors were taking before stopped by Charles Martel.

You still have 3 Jihadis worth, only now you have to count them using fractions.

Finally, somebody gets it. I'm so sick and tired of hearing people bring up the Crusades as though the Muslims/Moors that swept through the mideast and southern Europe did it with an olive branch, and were poor, peaceful victims. Funny how the history there always seems to begin at the year 1095, and ignores the previous 400 years of islamic conquest.

You really are out of touch with reality if you think slashdot has an overwhelming conservative majority. Plus, you can't label the whole GOP for the actions of a few dipshits anymore than you would label all muslims as terrorists.

In a way, I agreed with this. It seems like for the first time, the whole world was appalled, and finally getting fed up with these Islamophages. But now, yeah, attention will turn back to the West.
However, I also believe that if we do nothing, they will only get more powerful, and it could take decades or centuries for their folly to slow them down. In that time, a whole lot of people could die and suffer.

You're a moron if you think "whitey" wrote that book. You don't know history, period. That stuff is the legacy of the cradle of civilization, from Egypt to Assyria, Babylon, Persia, etc... Mankind has been doing all that since he was able to wield a club, and probably sooner than that.

Not from any evidence I've ever seen. No larger power had given them any attention for the past year, and their numbers, financial resources, and power swelled unchecked; they only become a greater threat with time. You cannot ignore them and make them go away, it doesn't work like that. One defector stated their long term goals include taking over the mideast, followed by Europe, and eventually, the entire globe. That obviously can't happen because they've ignorantly shunned the sciences, but it could take a whole 'nother generation or two before that lack of knowledge really takes its toll (if they're left unchecked in the meantime).
Granted, however, that this war will be lose-lose, because no matter what the western powers do, they will be decried in every form imaginable. But there is no choice. There is no logic where such a fanatical religion has taken root.

Because fuck common sense, that's why! Seems to be the way of things. I'm not sure if it's the engineers, or their pointy-haired bosses, or some degree of both. But it never ceases to amaze me how mfgs can manage to make such complicated, intricate things, and then ruin it by screwing up the most basic, common sense elements. It's not seeing the forest for the trees. Or maybe they found the glossy screens a lot cheaper than matte at wholesale, but it's still a bad decision.