Im ex-USAF too. Also spent 18 months in a region of an Islamic country that was under Martial Law and constant anarchy during my time there. Terrorism all the time. We had 3 SGTs gunned down in the capitol once by insurgents with automatic weapons. A guy I played ball with married a local Muslim girl and lived off base with her. One night he came home with a buddy and a bunch of fundementalists were waiting in his APT for him. They thru the both of them off a 4th floor balcony. My friend lived cause he landed on a car but the other guy died.
This was circa 1970s mind you. In case you think we ever "fit in" over there. Eventualy the Military Government solved its domestic problems by killing and imprisoning all the troublemakers. Its a concept that really works actually.
But that's what this series reminded me of, the memories it brought back. That we just don't belong in places like that. In Islam I mean. Its just a very foreign way of life for us and our presence just fuels the anti-Americanism their own so called Governments dope up their own people with to deflect their own inability to meet domestic needs.
Thats why I laugh my arse off when I hear the fat, spoiled children of Democracy call their own Police "Gestapo" or other such nonsense. Really, I laugh. 
Over there the Police will shoot you just for running from them, for any reason. Ever notice the lack of track and field talent from Islamic countries? The level of brutality and authoritive excess really has to be seen to be believed.
It doesn't really matter if we are there or not, with the killings. They kill each other no matter what, if they didn't have Americans or westerners to target they would target those who aren't holy enough so we are just doing them a favor by being there. Look anywhere in the world and name one place with a Islamic population under religious law where there isn't some sort of anarchy and killing going all in the name of it.
Christians did the same thing back in the day but eventually grew out of it, most likely because of the freedom the average westerner has. In most western nations the people have basic human rights and freedom to do what they want which means they don't have to take out their frustration in the name of religion.
Back when Christians used religion as the means of control over the populations you had the same kinds of killing in the name of their god. Just look at your history books and you can easily see if we stayed on that path we would be pretty much the same situation as them. What allowed the west to advance in the world was the very fact that we broke the bounds of rule by the church and ruled by law and order.
Most of the islamist nations that you see with all the problems, which is pretty much all of them, try to rule by religious law. Which is why they never advanced along with the rest of the western world. I'm not bashing Muslims because I know a few and here in a Western country they have been able to achieve the same things any westerner would. Simply because they aren't bound by religious law like they would have been back in many of their home countries.
Religious law is nothing more than a dictatorship in a sense but the dictator is the religion. Look at any population under a dictator and they do not grow and advance, take North Korea for example. The people aren't free to express themselves and advance in their lives. The country as a whole suffers because of this and dosen't really ever advancve with the rest of the world. It's the same with the countries under religious law, the only way to keep the people in line is to beat them and keep them in fear. No advancement can ever come from that.
The problem is, you just can't force the freedom on them. It's something they have to do and want for themselves and the fact they haven't wanted it bad enough in thousands of years, makes it kind of silly to think we are going to give it to them in 5 years. Just count your lucky stars that most Western countries did away with religious law under the church and went to a real law and order, otherwise we would be in the same position they are today.
