<<MT, why place this in a religious context, e.g. Christians versus Muslims? Isn't this pandering to the side of irrationality. This conflcit, of whcih I never espoused, was and is NOT about religion at all. To place it in that context, only lets the radical militiais CONTROL the context and provide yet another reason to kill our troops over there. This conflict was and is about POWER.>>
I actually agree with you, Professor, that (a) this is not a religious conflict and (b) it is about power.
In answer to your question, (why place this in a religious context?) I was using a hypothetical example to make my point to plane. My point was that the killing of American troops in Iraq was justified, that they had it coming. To make the point, I asked plane to consider the situation from the POV of the people whose homeland was invaded and whose fellow citizens were killed - - I gave him the example of a foreign army invading America. Wouldn't it be right for Americans to kill them? To dramatize the point a bit, I used the example of a Muslim army, but for the purposes of my argument, it could equally well have been a Communist army, an Arab army, a Jewish army, a Nazi army or a Polish army. The real point I was making is that members of an invading army who invade other people's homelands should expect to be killed. Sorry if I muddied the waters with the particular example I chose to make my point.
