Probably 50 if we really want to keep things under control over there. It's been a mess for over 1000 years and will be a mess for 1000 more. A few airstikes will not solve the problem.

I don't see ISIS or any other extreme terrorist group from the middle east target any other western country (Argentina, Brazil, ect) but the US. I wonder why that is

After you crack the code on how deal with the culture/mindset of Arab extremists, please feel free to pass it on to the rest of the world...

Exactly.
Bohicagain is making the dangerous assumption that, by showing weakness, we can somehow convince radical islamists not to hate us or want to kill us. Obama is proving the folly of that mindset every day.

There is evil in the world that needs to be killed. Them or is. To think otherwise is worse than naive; it's stupid.

Tell that to England, Spain, and France. That would be news to them!

And everybody thought the Republican Guard went back to farming or opened a Wendy's......

What is stupid is thinking that we can somehow change the way they are.
Even if we spend trillions of dollars and send 500k troops we can never eradicate 2 guys in a garage who make a suicide bomb and kill our troops in the hope they get 72 virgins. Like rockboy said this has been going on for 1000 years and it will probably go on for another 1000 years

Yes.

Then you have your head in the sand.

What is stupid, is to think that if we just let them grow in strength/numbers/financially, that they'll just leave everyone alone. They cut the heads off of innocent IRAQI women and children... We don't have the market cornered on who they hate!

No.. I am just trying to decipher what is acceptable... and then to have you think about TVM if we DON'T get it on DOS.

I guess the new phrase of the day is "straw man" eh?

It was he that pulled out early... great decision... now we get to go back and do it all over again.