Could you explain, maybe, how using the old Crusader slogan to describe the attitude behind the obliteration of Fallujah—a town of about half a million inhabitants—and the decision to treat all military-age males in the city as potential military targets is “spinning events in favor of the zealots”? It’s true that there are radical Islamists out there who believe that the Iraq war is a modern Crusade (although, for the record, the quote was actually not uttered in the context of a Crusade against Muslims). But so what? Many radical Islamists also believe that the world is round, but stating that it is is not “spinning events in favor of the zealots.” These are questions to be decided on their own merits, not by appealing to what good or bad people believe on the matter.

Is the quote applicable to the U.S. military’s assault on Fallujah—in which all “military-aged males” had to either turn themselves over to military custody or else be attacked—or isn’t it? If it isn’t, why isn’t it? If it is, then what’s wrong with pointing it out?

In light of the link that you apparently endorse below, is there any policy in Iraq short of genocide that you would take to be a rational response to the actions of some Arab or Muslim terrorists?