Not ALL religions are that bad. Islam seems to have some scriptures (if that's the right word) where people are induced to kill infidels in order to benefit in the afterlife. I don't know that Christianity or Judaism or any other mainstream religion praises violence done in this life in return for benefits in the afterlife, regardless of who the victims of the violence might be. The extremist Islamics use those scriptures to foment killing and thus keep the cycle of violence going.

Just look how crazy Iraq has become. Two Islamic sects with minor religious differences just flat out wasting each other left and right, while the third, more civilized sect (the Kurds) just wants to be left alone. Only in retrospect can we see that it was Saddam's brutality that kept all that more or less in check. But brutality isn't really 'the American way', so how the hell are we supposed to help? Give them a new strongman to dictate their lives so they don't kill each other? Maybe this will provide the American people a valuable lesson: don't create a problem until you FIRST figure out how you're going to solve it. And if it's not a problem we CAN solve, best not to get involved at all.