The “Indian Problem” has endured in the United States for 500 years, and it is not over yet.
During that time, everything imaginable, and many things unimaginable were tried to deal with this problem.The range of public policies was wide, and would run to dozens of approaches, all of which were tried at one time or another.
Most notably was the “final solution” approach that took the position that “the only good Indian was a dead Indian.” But though each and every approach had something to recommend it, and worked to a degree, none of them were ultimately without severe downsides.
Our dealing with the Muslim terrorists, specifically in Iraq, is on an interesting par with our experience dealing with our own native Indian population. Over the centuries we have tried many approaches, from the missionary who maintained that if we only converted these “savages” to Christianity, all would be well. That was tried on a large scale with disappointing results, and things were not “well.”
There were advocates for economic integration, cultural integration, co-existence, separate nations, and the list goes on. All were tried, but none were very satisfying for either side.
If anyone wonders how we might, must, could or should, deal with the Third World peoples and religions, they only have to review our 500 year experiment with our own internal Third World population, the American Indians.