Pssst.... in case you missed it, the radical flakes in Iraq don't even protect other Muslims. They're terrorists.
That you fail to distinguish between terrorists and Muslims in general, marks you as rather short-sited. If we are to win in Iraq, it will be because the Muslim population of Iraq learns to behave in a civilized manner -- and that seems to be happening.
But if you want to lose in Iraq, by all means take care to lump every Muslim there into the "terrorist" camp -- and you'll get your wish.
Er, you may not have noticed in your screed, but that was exactly what I was doing - distinguishing between the ordinary guy who probably doesn’t care and just wants to get on with his life, and the radical flakes.
The problem is that our passivity has encouraged the radical flakes to attack Christians (and our enshrining Islam in the Iraqi constitution encouraged both parties of radical flakes to think they could get control of the country, so I think it even encouraged fighting between the Muslims themselves).