Radical Moderates

This is coming straight off the cuff while I'm working, but I had to get it out. The situation in Iraq has gotten me thinking about possible solutions to the issue. Well all know that the Iraqis need to take control of their own country for this all to work, but the question remains why that doesn't seem to be happening. I won't get into all the historic and cultural reasons for this, as I will quickly stray out of my league, but one thing strikes me that's missing in this equation that seems essential to a thriving, democratic Iraq. This missing element is a class of moderate muslims that truly understand what's at stake, and are willing to go to the same lengths, if not further, that the terrorists are to gain control of their country. We can talk all day about what's civilized, what's acceptable, etc, but this sort of thing doesn't happen by sitting around talking and hoping it goes away, or relying on a big brother (the U.S.) to take care of things for you. You have to have a dedicated force of people from within who are willing to be absolutely ruthless in their pursuit of the jihadists. They have to be willing to out intimidate, out fight, and out murder these scumbags at every turn. The jihadists have to live in fear of them, or all is lost.

I don't care about all this bullshit about "becoming one of them" or "stooping to their level". If you're not willing to sacrifice as much as your enemy, you are bound to lose. There isn't an independent democratic society anywhere that can't trace it's roots back to a group of radicals who were willing to take things to a level beyond what their enemies could tolerate in order to secure their freedom. If this group doesn't emerge in Iraq soon, all will be lost.