Wow! I've been away for a while; I posted this same topic on another forum, and the discussion opened a floodgate, as they say.

I appreciate the responses here; and I don't think anybody's completely right or wrong. A few points;

1. I'm no historian, so I don't know who started this. I wasn't there during the Crusades, etc. So, I'm going by today's events. The Moslems chose to kill innocent women, children, and so on with sneak attacks and suicide bombers. We (the Christian West) may not have strapped bombs to ourselves and gone down to the local mosque, but we have our own methods of pissing people off. So, no protestations of complete innocence, please.
2. We must defend ourselves, no choice in the matter. I'm no martyr either.
3. The Pope is new on the job, and I think he should have kept his mouth shut about the nature of Islam. They're apparently crazy enough to use a derogatory cartoon for an excuse to kill. If somebody drew a picture of Jesus wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, I'd question their historical accuracy, but wouldn't be interested in killing them. Only a true nutcase would have that kind of response. Anybody who'd stick his foot in his mouth like that, knowing full well that it wouldn't serve any purpose other than to inflame the emotions of already unstable people should go back and take Common Sense 101 again. He obviously didn't learn anything the first time. We don't need one more big mouth adding to the chaos, we need better armor on our vehicles.
4. This is as real a war as it gets. It's funny, but the word genocide hasn't been used much so far. I think that's what they have in mind for us.

and finally;

5. If the majority of the Islamic people were really peacefull nice warm fuzzy types, they'd at least be criticizing their extremists, maybe even trying to make them back off in the intrest of sanity, instead of dancing in the streets when our guys get killed, letting the "minority" of criminals in their midst get away with the shit their doing, and generally not doing much to convince us they give a damn about the sanctity of life and the rights of others to pursue their (different) religious beliefs. If that's true of Islam; Fuck Allah, Fuck Mohammed, and Fuck the Middle East altogether.

Oh, and Fuck any organized, militant, agressive religions, who've twisted their doctrines to meet their immediate needs as well; ours too. That's the root of the problem anyway. Did Jesus say to oppose every non-believer, or did he say to love one another?

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