What if....... the Infantry, the Marines, the SEALs and the various CIA guys who, lately, suited up, humped ammo & rode helicopters hither & yon were replaced [at first] by:

THESE GUYS & their missile keys that can launch one or two instructive warheads from Ballistic Missile Submarines... "erasing" say Kandahar & Ghazni, not policing or pacifying, as did the ridiculous Lord Roberts & his ignorant long line of British, Indian, Pakistani, Russian successors?

Would all of our honored dead be running around & doing fun camping stuff in Fort Bragg NC. Virginia Beach, VA. San Diego, CA. Williamsburg, VA. Tampa, FL. - and a hundred other places --- safe & sound since about the third week of October 2001?

Why do we even have 12? 15? goddamn fucking Ballistic Missile Submarines?

Is humanity so in need of the latest goat-meat cuisine contribution of the Pashtun people?

Or have the Pashtuns demonstrated a capacity for mass suicide
---which we should oblige---
when they unwisely welcome and conspire with
rich, violent Arabs in their safe haven?

Since we haven't destroyed their wonderful cultural inheritance, can they now be expected to build schools, improve roads and plant trees... or will that take another 3000 years of careful meetings by the elders of the tribes?