Religious war

Whether we want it or not, we're in a religious war. It only takes one side to make a war, after all, and our enemies are the Wahabites with an explicitly religious set of goals.

However, as with most of the religious wars I can recall, the war isn't guided by religious goals. The foot soldiers are inspired by Wahabism, but the religious fervor is only the means to the end.

Suppose we threw blankets over every woman, girl, and cow, deported all Jews, demanded mass conversions to Islam, and nuked Tel Aviv. This wouldn't end the war. It might soothe a little of our offense in the eyes of some of the foot soldiers, but the essence of Wahabism is to always be more austere and holy than the other fellow; and we would never be able to completely catch up to the changing standard of perfection.

In any case, the hatred doesn't come only from religious differences. Their greatest humiliation is that they were bested by infidels. That they are poor and we rich forms only a little part of the humiliation, and if we gave them all our wealth it could only seem condescending and even more humiliating.

There are only two ways they can recover their precious self-esteem:

• To take our goods and lands (and persons: the Wahabites believe in slavery) by force
• To destroy us if they cannot rule us

Either victory demonstrates the power of their culture and religion over our tribe and culture.