[Old Student]

one problem; not all the Muslims are at war with us. There are some from each branch of Islam, but not everyone even from any one branch. And there are nearly as many branches of Islam as there are of Christianity.

Making it merely a religious war is oversimplistic. It is a cultural war, and the cultures at war are the extremes, not the center.

[quidnunc]

Old Student wrote: one problem; not all the Muslims are at war with us. There are some from each branch of Islam, but not everyone even from any one branch. And there are nearly as many branches of Islam as there are of Christianity. Making it merely a religious war is oversimplistic. It is a cultural war, and the cultures at war are the extremes, not the center.

There are two main branches of Islam and a scant handful of subsects.

At the risk of being monotonous I have to repeat that to a devout Muslim Islam their culture — and their polity too.

The more secular and less devout the Muslim is the less likely he is to consider himself to be at war with us.

By any standard this is a religious war.

I realize that there are many world-weary sophisticates who have an ideological stake in denying that this is a religious war.

If the proposition can be maintained that this is a culture war then at least some of the blame can be attributed to the U. S. and the aforementioned world-weary sophisticates can continue sending Americans on a guilt trip.

but once it becomes a religious war then the equation changes and the onus shifts squarely onto the Muslim aggressors.

[BenR2]

Making it merely a religious war is oversimplistic. It is a cultural war, and the cultures at war are the extremes, not the center.

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Hello? The most important element in your "cultural war" is RELIGION -- specifically a religion the adherants of which view all non-Muslim countries as comprising the "House of War." (That is mainline Islamic teaching, by the way.)