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"Islamic extremists" isn't a culture. Unless you believe that the broader sense of the word applies; which includes yoghurt. :-)

"Moslem culture", if it can be called that, isn't 1500 years old.

Mesopotamia? That culture is mostly dead.

The "seat of Islam" includes all of Arabia. Most of that is Saudi Arabia. esp as it includes Medina

Disputable histories:

Which has includes the creation of the British-ruled "protectorate" with borders very close to that of present-day Iraq, the installation of "royalty", its overthrow, etc.

That's not been my buttertion. My buttertion is that the war was a foolish adventure. I've observed that some may perceive the invasion as an act of colonialism. And what's important is that Iraq's neighbours perceive the USA's action as imperialism.

Even if that is not really the case, it's the perception that fuels opposition.

AFAICT, it doesn't take much to get the desperate, disenchanted to martyr themselves in the quest for a short-cut to heaven. Those who have the ears of a few hundred can easily incite.

Most do. It's called raising armies and fighting wars.

The religious training is to obey Allah. If the religious training is "complete", then they are much less vulnerable.

It's very easy to demonise the leadership (and people) of another nation. It happenend plenty of times in "Christian" nations during the 20th century. e.g. the "Huns" eating babies and the "Turks" crucifying kittens.

As you see; most systems of belief can be abused to single out the ignorant-angry and abuse them for unholy purposes.

Ummm... no. I might read your reply and leave it for days before re-reading to try to maintain objectivity. There's a possibility that I'm reading too much between the lines through over-analysis.

The form of language that you use stems from fear (and anger).

That's entirely understandable and moreover; has nothing to do with gender!

Learning about them before the ransacking may have imbued an understanding of the culture so that the ransacking may have been avoided.

Even after the fact, understanding the other is a key point not only in preventing a repeat, but also provides the potential for reconciliation and mutual profit.

They may have believed that it was their holy duty, but if you understand their religion reasonably well, you may be able to persuade them that their action is unacceptable under other parts of their own scripture. e.g. Thou shalt not kill!

You may be able to diminish their Jihad from physical violence to one of intellectual argument.

That's an instinct. It's triggered by fear.

And Bush is doing what?

The perception of the local electorate is easily changed to exploit inherent (rightful!) mistrust of political leaders. The only way in which an elected person can continue to work towards a goal is to remain electable.

The electorate doesn't see the fat-cat dictator rolling in money nor the rations and muntions being distributed to the oppressive mechanism; they see the snippets of propaganda footage showing thousands of emaciated children who are on the bring of starvation because your President (for the sake of argument) has cut food aid. That's the propaganda line. It works 999 times out of 1000. -- "Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia ASCII ribbon campaign "Laws do not persuade just because X against HTML mail they threaten." and postings Lucius Annaeus Seneca, c. 4BC - 65AD.