McCain recognizes neither distinctions among distinct individuals and groups with distinct histories and agendas, nor does he pay the slightest heed to weighing the goals and potential benefits of any foreign policy against its political and economic costs...Somehow, Germany, Italy, and Japan were not the same nation, but we ended up fighting all of them. Guess WWII wasnt part of the history curriculum at Yale Beauty Academy

Moreover, it's at best half-true that "the terrorists" seek nuclear weapons. Presumably, ceteris paribus, any extreme armed faction would desire to have nuclear weapons. That doesn't mean an outfit like Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood, or even, yes, al Qaeda, is in any sort of position to divert their scarce resources to an astronomically expensive project like nuclearization. (How, incidentally, would a terrorist group use a nuclear weapon if they had one? ... They dont have to develop their own nukes, they could buy them. Also, they dont need missiles, they could use a suitcase bomb. Which quota did you use to get into Yale?

Yet in the absence of political reconciliation in Iraq, which appears now to be decisively out of reach... How do you know this? have you ever been to Iraq? Do you know where it is on a map?