Sometimes it is indeed difficult to see the forest for the trees. Try to step back from your focus on religion to look at the bigger picture, it might help.

But also don't always try to drag larger discussions back to your focus on religion. My points are not about any one state, and apply as much in Pakistan as they do in the Netherlands or South America, or the U.S.; they are independent of any particular fact pattern and premised in the underlying dynamics at work.

Yes, Pakistan saw Afghanistan as a buffer, or maneuver space that they could use in conflict with India. Yes, the Pakistanis backed the Taliban to keep a friendly government there to allow this. Yes these people are largely Muslim. We inserted ourselves into this dynamic in order to get at AQN, which was totally ancilary to the Pakistan -Afghan/Taliban relationship.

What we did there was unconventional warfare to replace this Pakistani supported government with a US supported government in order to deny the sanctuary that the Taliban were giving AQN. Everything that follows is because this is a very complex situation with a lot of history and we didn't appreciate or understand any of that very well, we just wanted to sting AQ and deny the sanctuary. This lack of understanding /appreciation, coupled with our own narrow objective going in, and ever widening set of objectives of "democratizing" and "nation building" since have gotten us ever deeper into a situation we still don't have our minds around.

But "religious terrorism" is a convenient label that places all blame on Islam, and offers no insights as to how to achieve a broader solution. I am sure the Pope and his Catholic team agonized over "religious terrorism" during the reformation as well, just as we agonized over "communist terrorism" in the 50s and 60s. To focus on the beliefs used to motivate the masses over the underlying causes of conflict is to set a course for failure. Many have taken it in the past because it conveniently absolves one of any responsibiltiy for the conflict.

Follow the Pied Piper theory of idological caused insurgency if you will. But I have no time for such baseless fairy tales. If the city is full of rats, it is because we've left too much garbage laying about. When we clean up our mess, the rats will go away.