1. Notice that I stated in my post that I was "Not getting into whys and hows, just the sad facts."
2. Notice also that I did not mention W, instead used the general term "Republicans"
Now, let me expand a little...
W is still remarkably well-liked within American Muslim circles. If Muslims feel betrayed it is not by George W, and certainly not merely a matter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Where the feeling of betrayal comes is the rather harsh attitude of Congressional Republicans, and the language and tone of the mainstream conservative press, which is widely read by the Muslim community. (Remember the Muslim community here in America is not the same as it is in Europe. I would venture to say that Muslim Americans tend to be among the top three ethno/religious minorites when it comes to education and affluence-- behind the Jews and the Japanese)
So, when senior writers in conservative magazines say things like "they put their ethnicity/religion above loyalty to the country". (by the way, does that sound familiar to you Jews?)Or, you hear a thoughtful sounding discussion of the value of nuking of Mecca, Muslim opinion leaders-- the business class, the doctors-- who have long been the vigilant defenders of this community from the infiltration by poverty pimps and racial hucksters of the left, they find themselves very alone.
My personal feeling is that walking away from the political process would be a disaster. It would assure that the country would drift further into greater moral ferment and toward the statist capitalism of Europe. And it would also assure that where we have little say about foreign policy now, our departure from politics would guarantee we will have none.
Now, this is the part where I deconstruct a number of your statements 1. U.S. Muslims mistakenly thought the Dems were soft on Israel and they dreamed that "Bush + Oil = Screw the Jews"?
Unlike many public-school educated Americans today, American Muslims have a sense of history. To them the idealized Republican party is the party of Eisenhower who put America's long term national security and strategic interests ahead of the priorities of any domestic political pressure group.
Eisenhower asked a key question whose answer is self-evident: How does supporting Israel benefit us? American Muslims believed that Bush 41 and Jim Baker shared that view, and believed that the son of Bush would not take policy stances diametrically different than those of his father. We were wrong, but then the Israel-Palestine mess was not and is not the key motivator of the Muslim vote.
2. You feel betrayed by the Republicans who have bent over backwards to avoid saying the obvious, that this is a Holy War between civilizations?
It isn't a holy war between civilizations, it's a war between humanity against a religion created by the House of Saud. It's not the Turks, or the Iranians, or the Bahrainis, or the Paks crashing airplanes into buildings, it's a bunch of guys who owe intellectual alleigance to the Wahabbis of Saudi Arabia and Egypt. My big problem with this war is that we're running around-- sorry have to run 3. 19 guys don't run around for months praying and buying Hallal food and don't get noticed by the American Muslim community. American Muslims not only didn't do anything to stop it, they actively encouraged it.
Too simple by far. This isn't between the wahabbis and the rest of the world, this is between islam and the rest of the world.
Wahabbism seems not to be a prerequisite for muslims turning into treacherous genocidal nuts at the drop of a hat. Just reading a few muslim websites in the US, randomly sampled, is enough to prove that. It is also enough to prove that islam should be illegal, and that muslims should be denied citizenship or residence anywhere but in the islamist countries where they can live out their lives under Sharia, stone each other, and have fun with chopping off limbs.
In fact, every Sharia-based country should be quarantined with nothing getting in or out, and any military buildup should be flattened the moment it appeared.