Old Guy, you asked: "What is the purpose of the Islamic extremists and what would they like to be doing right now?"

Well, that depends on which specific "Islamic extremists" one is referring to, I imagine, but for most of the rank and file their conscious purpose is most certainly that of virtually all voluntary fighters in any war: to defend their people, their land, and their way of life. Period. That is undoubtedly how they see it.

Are they picking a wise way of doing so? Probably not, but they are picking the same way YOU would recommend if you were one of them...the way of violent retaliation for past and present grievances. The way of fear and hatred. The way of paranioa and assumed moral superiority.

The conscious purpose of most American soldiers who support Bush's administration is the identical mirror image to that of the Islamic extremists: to defend their own people, their land, and their way of life. That is how they see it too.

Nothing unusual about that in either case! It's typical of virtually all people who are willing to fight in such a war.

Both sides see the other side AS the aggressor. Both sides are willing to go wherever they are ordered to and massacre the people and property of the other side by any means that appears effective and workable. That's what happens in war.

You are mistaken in assuming that Islamic fighters have horns growing out of their heads (symbolically speaking, I mean) or are intrinsically evil in their nature...although the effects of their aggressive actions on others are most certainly evil in many cases. The effects of American soldiers' aggressive actions on other people's lands are equally evil...and far more widespread...because America has the means to achieve much greater destruction on foreign soil than do the Islamic fighters.

Islamic people are not fighting America because they hate YOUR way of life...or because they hate "democracy"...they are fighting America because they LOVE their own way of life and see America and Israel threatening it...by controlling their economies, dominating their governments, stealing their land and resources, and invading their nations and slaughtering their people wholesale. If this were not happening for decades now, there would in fact be no reason for the Islamic extremists you mention to be out there fighting America and Israel at all...and they would not be doing so.

They would be doing what Amos was talking about..."eating well, getting laid, raising young successfully, and being honored for good acts"...in a culture and manner of their own choice, rather than Washington's.

They are fighting for national and cultural survival, and they are desperate. They have reason to be. They are outgunned about a thousand to one in firepower by the most aggressive and irresponsible military powers in the World at this time...the USA, the UK, and Israel.