History is made by a few committed people

Like George Washington -- without his decisive leadership the American Revolution would have been unsuccessful.

But one thing that seems clear is this---as history has shown again and again, the direction we take may depend on the actions of a very small number of people. A few clerics, some complicity media, a radical jihadist group or two...and a small number of willing rioters...can play a decisive role in whether this escalates into a full-blown war between the Islam and the West. Our actions matter in this. Right now, most in the West are hoping to have this be a precision war against jihadists, a targeted conflict that tries to convince average Muslims that they are not our enemies--only the Islamist radicals within their midst. However, the decision as to whether this can be such a conflict, or whether it spirals into a worldwide, multi-generational conflict with all of Islam is---at best---only half up to us. And if only a small number of people on the other side have decided that they want all-out war, then whatever choices we may once have had will have been reduced to only two: fight it, or not.

http://www.modernconservative.com/modcon_central/108_Whether_we_must_go_to_war_with_all_of_Islam_(or_not)_is_only_half_up_to_us_.html