TTT - " ... the civilised world needs to treat this like a word war and do it massively. Up to now we have not really scratched the surface."
I would disagree that this is a 'war' in the sense that I understand the term.
This is not a battle of armies, it is a battle of ideals and attitudes, and you cannot supress that with military force - as has clearly been proven already.
If you are sitting in Afghanistan or Pakistan as a fundamentalist, and you believe that the West is corrupt and hell-bound, is the invasion of your country by the West likely to underline, or eradicate your viewpoint?
As I say, I would not claim that I know what the solution is - but it is clear that simple butting of heads will always fail, so although Naomi is being sarcastic with her notion of a 'chat', I do believe that some sort of rati0nal exchage of communication is the only real way forward, because conflict simply hardens attitudes on both sides.
I don't think minds will be changed overnight, it may take a few generations to get it right, but we have to start somewhere.
If you approach a solider of faith in his own country with force, you will be met with force, and his belief that he is an invaded martyr will simply spread.
If you try and educate him in the notion that our ideas are different - not right, or wrong, just different, then you go some way towards reaching a level of understanding.
Those who huff and puff and say there is 'no reasoning with terrorists' are simply doomed to continue the waste of life and money with no result - and history has shown that to be the case.
Someone has to start making a move somewhere - and the trite media sound bite 'boots on the ground' is absolutely not the more to make.