That begs a question ...

and it's one I think the West has been dancing around since we awoke to 9/11 (of course it predates this, but that's the demarcation line in our modern realization that they were at war with us, so we'd better engage).

For all our talk about "winning the hearts and minds." For all our desire to inject democracy as a vaccine against fundamentalists. The notion of closing down GITMO, sending aid, supporting Egyptian aspirations of liberty, and on and on, what your 1453 post points out is something I broached with Jambo via phone some time back, but is so "un-PC" that no leader, no politician, no person with any influence amongst the West would ever stand up and say it - we will not realize peace with the Muslim world until their faith undergoes a Reformation.

Now, if that word seems to loaded a phrase, or distracting for practicing Catholics, let us agree upon "Renaissance." The Muslim faith as practiced today mirrors eras we regard as barbaric. I asked Jambo if by definition that makes Islam less civilized a religion then Christianity, circa 2011 (I mean, can anyone name a majority Christian nation that is not free)? He really, and I mean really hesitated to say yes. Think about that - we pride ourselves on dispatching political correctness in favor of truth, and even within the confines of our private phone conversation he was hesitant to say such. And it's NOT his fault, for THAT is the death grip PC has on the modern Western tongue.

Your 1453 post; my stats on the liberty (or lack thereof) within the 46 majority-Muslim states; the barbarity practiced in beheadings; the honor killings (occurring in Western dwelling Muslim families); slavery; stoning; clitorechtomys; forcing captives to declare their Jewish blood before death; forcing conversions on Western journalists to escape death; and this is before we even get to the acts of terror - the list goes on and on. And while one can argue about the "small" percentage of those preforming such acts, what can not be argued is the huge percentages of sympathizers. For goodness sake Osama has a higher approval rating in the Mid East then ANY Western leader. Mein Kompf is a best seller in Saudi Arabia. Bottom line - Islam has not realized its' Renaissance. And until it does our efforts at making it compatible with Jeffersonian democracy will be both bloody and protracted.

And if the West is unable to say that out loud, less they be labeled a hatemonger, how can we possibly aid in its hastening?

My concern is be it 100, 200, 300 years in the future, all great powers have fallen to the turning page of history, destined to be referenced as nothing more then a people of long ago. No civilization has proven immune. So are we to be humanity's first exception? Is our founding pact that special? I sincerely hope. But I must reconcile that hope with the fact that each of these powers chose failure as their fate, it was not hoisted upon them. So which direction would you say our choices are leading us? To a golden age? Or a history book which reads: " and that was the American experiment" ... turn the page.