As much as Zinn may long for the day when armies massed upon the plains and did battle a la Napoleon or the Romans, prisitnely isolated from the civilian world, it ain't gonna happen. That day is done and gone (and come to think of it, it never really existed, except in tabletop miniature games). So long as modern combatants hide among civilians, civilians will die. An ugly truth is no less a truth for being unattractive and distasteful.
The result: they killed 5,000 innocents in an attack on our industry and seats of government and defense leadership.
It is a just cause, it is past time for a just war. We are conducting it in a manner designed to minimize the slaughter of innocents. Tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of innocent lives are being saved by our actions to stop these murderers.
Zinn is at least an uninformed fool, at best a misguided heart. He should be patted on the head and sent to play in the corner where no one can be influenced by his feelgood self-righteous brain dumps.