[tater]

I think the worse the Soviets, erm, Russians, want to notch it up the better.

It's all win. In the West, we simply cannot accept doing what was SOP during WW2, total war. We did it to the Japanese, we (the US) did it slightly less so to the Germans (cause the UK had that bit well-covered already). You know what, it worked.

Fanatical enemies need to be COWED. It's not enough to win, they need to be driven to unconditional capitulation, whatever it takes. We were absolutely, in every possible way, worse to the Japanese, both in war, and domestically than we have been to Muslims. The analogs between the war in the PTO and islam are actually pretty stunning in terms of suicidal attacks, and the great difficulty in dealing with them.

Pragmatically, the Russians kill off more loons, possible loons, and proto-loons, and become the primary focus for them perhaps instead of the US being the "great satan." Diverting them from us is a good thing, and makes our far more benign style look even more appealing.

I certainly don't cry of dead chechens. Read up on the Beslan massacre, if that happened here in the US I'd be fine with glassing the entire Muslim world over, frankly.

Note that this was not a problem before the Saudis started pushing Wahabism into an area where the Muslims used to be Sufis.

<EDIT> my comment regarding nuking them was a little over the top, I'll admit. It was in the context of a response to a hypothetical Beslan-like attack on children by Islamists—who routinely, intentionally target children. Intent matters. Holding a whole religion responsible? Religion is a choice of ideas to hold. Ayaan Hirsi Ali talks about her feelings post 9-11. She immediately went and looked up the quotes OBL made afterwards in claiming the attacks, assuming they would be wrong, misquoted, or sneaky interpretations. She wanted this to be true, because she was a devout Muslim woman. She found them, and read them (in Arabic, since she speaks it, and partially grew up in Saudi Arabia). They were not "hijacked" but flatly true if you believe that set of ideas (Islam). She abandoned her religion rather than accepting membership in a group that held those beliefs. Are there true moderates in Islam? Sure. Just as there are people that claim to hold any group membership, but don't ACTUALLY believe all of it. That's hypocritical, IMO. I'm not religious because I can't believe their creation stories. Nothing more. I can't pick and chose only some bits, so I'm an "unbeliever." Regardless, glassing over a billion people won't happen, and could not happen. I might wish all KKK or neo-Nazi members to spontaneously combust, and that won't happen, either (and I'd similarly not be bothered by the loss of KKK or Nazis, either, every last one of them, even credulous goons who don't really know better).