God has little to do with political plays. Not all muslim extremist are believers, just like not all the american politicians who say they&#x27;re christians are actually christians[0]. More often than not, it&#x27;s a facade from the leaders to draw in more pawn soldiers who believe in the cause.<p>You talk a lot about not having a clue on &quot;the reality of the conflicts&quot; and yet, you are unable to take a step back and look from the perspective of someone completely alien to the situation.<p>America has, time and time again, used and abused its armies for strategic and economical purposes (The &quot;if you have oil...&quot; meme has been beaten to death, hasn&#x27;t it?). It certainly is willing to sacrifice innocent lives as long as it doesn&#x27;t make the news - which it doesn&#x27;t because of how hostile the entire country is to muslim ideals. And I&#x27;ve heard more than once the term &quot;God&quot; being thrown around by US politicians to justify these things. Does all of this ring a bell to you?<p>One of the sides is certainly a lot more barbaric than the other, what with the beheadings and what not... but whether your family is dying to american bombs or to barbarians doesn&#x27;t really change squat for the victims. With the exception that one of them is actually less destructive - take a guess which?<p>[0]  Since we&#x27;re talking about countries with backwards ideologies, how is it that it&#x27;s political suicide to be an atheist in the US? We have plenty of them in France and nobody gives a shit...<p>Edit: I&#x27;ll add to this... It&#x27;s really hard to take a step back and picture yourself as being the bad guy. It&#x27;s nearly impossible, in fact. You are raised on one side of a conflict and you simply <i>do not</i> have the full picture unless you&#x27;ve yourself lived on the other side or been with people on the other side. But try to understand this: In these wars, there&#x27;s no &quot;bad guy and good guy&quot;. There&#x27;s two bad guys and a lot of followers who have been completely brainwashed to think the causes are worthy.<p>Wars are not about justice. They&#x27;re not about spreading culture, be that culture islam or democracy. We&#x27;d be at war with North Korea if they were about any of those things. Wars are strategic, and always about <i>taking something away from the enemy</i>, be it territory, riches or political power. The two sides are equally bad, and the civilians&#x2F;soldiers on both sides only see how evil the other side is - they don&#x27;t get to see the evil of their own.